Isabela Espadas Barros Leal is an associate editor for NBC News' diversity verticals based in New York.
It’s been 50 years since a 21-year-old University of Michigan college student became the first openly gay person elected to public office in the U.S. Kathy Kozachenko, now 71, served only a single term on the Ann Arbor City Council, but she opened a door to LGBTQ representation in politics when the community was rapidly gaining visibility in American society.
It was a college town, and it was very progressive, so this was not something that would have been seen as a negative,” Kozachenko said of running for office as an out lesbian. Even the pushback she encountered campaigning was relatively mild, Kozachenko said. She recalled knocking on the door of a man who told her he was a born-again Christian but would vote for Kozachenko anyway because “God works in mysterious ways.
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