Ritchie Torres (NY-15) and Mondaire Jones (NY-17) have become the first two out LGBTQ Black members of the U.S. Congress, having won their New York races. In a statement, Torres, representing the South Bronx and the first out LGBTQ Afro-Latinx member of Congress, said: “The Bronx is my home, it is what made me who I am, and it is what I will fight for in Congress.” The victory was “the honor of a lifetime,” Torres said. His mother was his inspiration, “a working single mom who fought for a better life for her family.”
Jones, whose district encompasses Rockland County and parts of Westchester County, said in a tweet: “My grandmother used to clean homes in Congers. When daycare was too expensive, she took me with her. Now I get to run to represent the same people whose homes I watched my grandmother clean growing up. My story, quintessentially, is that of the American Dream.”
Torres and Jones are the second and third out LGBTQ men of color to serve in the Congress—the first being U.S. Representative Mark Takano.
