An espresso-colored nameplate sits outside of every office in Congress, but one of the newest placards is a sign of progress: Everton Blair Jr., Georgia.
Blair, 34, is the Peach State's first gay congressman, the third Black gay man elected in House history and the first Black gay man to serve from the South. He will serve just four months in Congress as the short-term successor to Rep. David Scott, the first-ever Black chair of the House Agriculture Committee who died April 22. Blair prevailed over Scott's daughter in a special election to represent the state's 13th District on Aug. 25.
"I've always been very open about who I am and using every opportunity to be a role model to break down the stigmas and barriers related to accessing any field
or area or arena where it feels like there's not enough of us represented," Blair told USA TODAY.
He won during a fraught time for Black political power in America. A Supreme Court ruling on April 29 axed a key provision of the Voting Rights Act. In turn, red states redrew districts with fewer majority-Black seats, but Black voter turnout has accelerated in more recent Southern primaries, according to a VoteHub study published in July.
Blair's victory represents a key gain for Black gay political candidates this cycle after a slew of losses. Blair lost a May primary to replace Scott for a full term; Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz prevailed over progressive Elijah Manley in Florida's 20th District; and state Sen. Shevrin Jones failed to win a primary in Florida's 24th District after homophobic attack ads.
Blair's win comes at a crucial time for Black queer Americans in the South, said Emil Wilbekin, the founder of Black gay advocacy organization Native Son.
"For him to be the first Black queer elected official from the South for Congress is a big deal because the South for Black folks and Black queer folks is really challenging right now," the former Vibe magazine editor told USA TODAY, pointing to voting rights issues and higher HIV rates in the region.
Elected in the 'Black gay mecca'
Black gay men have long spearheaded progress for civil rights for Black Americans.
Bayard Rustin was a top advisor to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who helped organize the seminal March on Washington in 1963. His work has been well documented in recent years through a Netflix documentary "Rustin" in 2023 that scored Black gay actor Colman Domingo an Academy Award nomination for best actor in a leading role. Countless media figures, including RuPaul, Billy Porter, Lil Nas X, Colman Domingo and James Baldwin widened visibility for Black gay men in the arts. Federal political representation, though, has still lagged for the identity.
In 2020, Rep. Ritchie Torres and former Rep. Mondaire Jones, both of New York, made history as the first Black gay people elected to Congress.
Over 60 years later, Blair is now the South's first Black gay congressman. He was raised by Jamaican immigrants in the Atlanta suburbs in the 1990s and early 2000s.
He later attended Harvard and Stanford universities and worked on former President Barack Obama's White House Initiative on Educational Excellence within the nation's Department of Education. He became a high school math teacher in the Atlanta Public Schools and, in 2018, was elected to the Gwinnett County School Board at 26 and served as chair.
In May, Blair placed third behind state Rep. Jasmine Clark and reality TV star Heavenly Kimes, of Bravo's "Married to Medicine" in a congested primary to replace Scott.
After his loss, Blair ran in a separate July race to succeed Scott, who died in April, for the remainder of the influential congressman's term until January 2027. Blair placed second behind Marcye Scott, the congressman's daughter, in July and when no contenders won 50% of the vote, Blair and Scott advanced to a late August runoff.
Blair pulled off an upset Aug. 25 and prevailed over Scott to serve the remainder of her father's term in Congress.
He ran on a progressive platform: He supports Medicare for All, a Green New Deal, raising the minimum wage and universal gun background checks.
Darian Aaron, the senior director of local news in the South at LGBTQ+ advocacy group GLAAD, said that Blair's win signals advancement for federal Black gay representation in Atlanta, a central city for LGBTQ+ Americans in the South.
"There is a reason why Georgia and Atlanta specifically is called the Black gay Mecca," Aaron said. "I mean, this is a place where Black queer people can come to be liberated, to be in community with other Black queer folks."
Aaron pointed out that more LGBTQ+ people live in the South than any other U.S. region: 35% – or 5 million people – according to the Williams Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law.
'My story is not that unique'
In Congress, Blair plans to focus on affordability and address constituent services during his four-month tenure. Blair also pointed to Black voting rights to restore more Black representation in the House. He said he wants to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, named for the civil rights icon who later served in Congress, and reinstate "preclearance" which required federal approval for voting changes.
"It is astonishing to me that the current Republicans are gutting the very hard-fought successes of the Voting Rights Act that we fought, bled, and died for and I refuse to live in a country where my grandparents have greater access to the voting booth than I do," Blair said.
In January, state Rep. Jasmine Clark, who won the first crowded Democratic primary in May, will likely replace Blair in the solidly blue district. On the day of his swearing-in Sept. 1, Blair was surrounded by his parents.
His dad held the Bible as Blair posed with Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, for a ceremonial swearing-in, a hallmark for new members of Congress. Friends stopped by his office.
He was officially sworn in by Johnson on the House floor. The room gave Blair's parents a round of applause. He shouted out his mentor, Rep. Lucy McBath, a Georgia congresswoman who won in 2018 after losing her son to gun violence.
"My story is really not that unique. Born and raised in a very American household with immigrant parents. We acclimated. And so many of the things I've been able to achieve and accomplish, I've just sought to try to do and make sure everybody else can."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Meet the South's first Black gay congressman
