Gender Identity of LGBTQ+ Elected Officials by Year

The gender diversity of LGBTQ+ elected officials has grown dramatically since the first Out for America report in 2017. Particularly, as visibility grew for transgender, gender-nonconforming, genderqueer, and non-binary people, representation in elected office grew as well. But for the first time this year, we saw a slight decline in representation for transgender men and women. However, the number of elected officials who are neither cisgender nor transgender is growing.

In 2017, only six out transgender people served in elected office nationwide. Today, 47 transgender men and women serve in elected office. Gender nonconforming, genderqueer and non-binary elected officials also saw growth in representation since 2017, when there were zero known out gender non-conforming, non-binary or genderqueer elected officials. Now, 57 hold those identities as out elected officials.

When combining all non-cisgender officials, including transgender, gender non-conforming, non-binary and two-spirit individuals, the growth rate between 2017-2024 is 1633.3%, from six elected officials to 104.

While cisgender men have had higher rates of representation than cisgender women among LGBTQ+ officials, transgender women have had higher rates of representation than transgender men since 2017. But, the rate of growth from 2017 to date for both cisgender and transgender women is higher than that of cisgender and transgender men (165.4% percent for cisgender women, 875% for trans women, compared to 158.9% for cisgender men and 300% for trans men, respectively.)