Respect due

New, gay Congressman Ritchie Torres had best response to MAGA protestor’s taunts

Ritchie Torres
Ritchie Torres (Photo: Facebook)

As you will probably be aware, a few thousand Make America Great Again protestors descended upon Washington on Saturday to demonstrate Donald Trump losing the election. The number of attendees fell far short of the 1million promised.

Related: MAGA march expected to draw millions of attendees misses target by about 995,000 people

One of those to have a run-in with them was newly-elected Congressman Ritchie Torres.

Two weeks ago, Democratic lawmaker Torres, 32, became the first openly-gay, Afro-Latinx person to be elected to Congress when he was elected to represent New York State’s 15 Congressional District, which covers the South Bronx. He and other new Congress members went to Washington for New Member Orientation sessions last week.

On Saturday, Torres posted about being taunted by a MAGA protestor.

“About an hour ago, I was traveling from the Capitol to the Hyatt hotel when a MAGA demonstrator, screaming from a microphone, called me a “homeboy in a suit.” Sorry MAGA but the name is Congressman-elect Ritchie Torres.”

The tweet has had over a quarter of a million likes and over 21,000 comments. Many were supportive.


Predictably, it also attracted a lot of hate and racism … which we won’t bother reprinting here!

Related: Mondaire Jones and Ritchie Torres become first Black, openly-gay Congressmen

Over the last few days, Torres has been reflecting on his journey to Washington.

Yesterday, he posted a video in which he said, “I never thought in my wildest dreams, as a poor kid of color that I would go from public housing in the Bronx to the people’s house in Washington DC. I’m fired up and looking forward to causing good trouble.”

Last week, talking to Reuters, Torres said that the diversity of newly-elected lawmakers showed that times were changing. Besides racial diversity, a handful of trans people achieved election victory, including Sarah McBride to the Delaware State Senate.

“We’re witnessing the collapse of politics as an old boys club, and we’re witnessing the embrace of America as a multiracial, multiethnic, inclusive democracy,” said Torres.

“I hope to be an inspirational example of what is possible in America. But in the end, I’m going to be judged not by who I am but by what I accomplish. So my identity matters in the short run, but in the long run, what matters is the record that I build in Congress.”

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