The best person to advocate for the LGBTQ community is someone in it. It's important for us to support each other, which means voting LGBTQ people into office with the confidence they'll put equality and LGBTQ issues at the forefront of their work. It wasn't that long ago that candidates would have been afraid to publicly expose their sexual preference. The fact that they can now do so freely emphasizes the importance of voting them into office. We need voices in power who will look out for and fight for us.

There are probably many heterosexual people who would never consider voting for an LGBTQ candidate. We still have a lot of obstacles to overcome and it starts with voting for people who are like us in order to combat those who hate us. It's been a long and arduous struggle for our community to make progress and attain many of the same rights as heterosexuals. We can't regress or take the risk that someone will either not fight to protect our rights and civil liberties or possibly even speak out against them. If a candidate is LGBTQ, I'd anticipate them putting the protection of their community as priority number one. An LGBTQ politician should understand the critical role they play in helping our community continue to move forward and be treated equally better than anyone else could. The public needs to see that we are just as qualified to represent the people as any straight person could.