Runoff gives Texas 2 out state reps for 1st time in history, a landmark the Austin activist and Realtor is ‘proud of’
HISTORY MAKER | Celia Israel, right, hugs her partner Celinda Garza after being declared the winner in the House District 50 runoff Tuesday night. Israel’s win marks the first time in the state’s history that two out members have served in the state Legislature. (Photo courtesy of Casey Chapman Ross Photography)
AUSTIN — With the election of Austin Realtor and community activist Celia Israel this week, the Texas Legislature gained two openly LGBT members.
Israel won the runoff Tuesday against Republican Mike VanDeWalle to take over the unexpired term of former state Rep. Mark Strama, who resigned last summer. Her election also marked the second time an openly LGBT woman has been elected to the state Legislature. Out state Rep. Mary Gonzalez, D-El Paso, was elected in 2012 after more than a decade without an out legislator when Austin’s Glen Maxey left in 2001.
Giving her acceptance speech Tuesday, Israel mentioned her longtime partner Celinda Garza and joked, as she often has, that behind every good woman is another good woman.
“I’m proud of it,” Israel said about having two out state lawmakers at once. “I’m proud of it, and I hope that by making fun of it that I’m pointing out the fact that it speaks to where we are politically as LGBT leaders in our community.”
Israel will join Gonzalez to work in the interim to prepare for next year’s session. While she spoke to Speaker of the House Joe Strauss later in the week about her future swearing in, she said she’s anxious to be sworn in and getting to work for the district.
“That’s when it will be real,” she said.
Gonzalez said she first met Israel, who is originally from El Paso, when Gonzalez was campaigning in 2012. Since then, she’s been among Israel’s strongest LGBT supporters and was thrilled to see her victory this week.
“I am speechless, which for me never happens,” Gonzalez said about her excitement for Israel’s win.
Gonzalez’s presence in the state House helped open other lawmakers’ minds to LGBT people and the community’s issues. She said she hopes she and Israel can continue to do that together.
“When there’s one, there’s always tokenization,” she said. “Even when there’s two, there’s some tokenization. But at least it doesn’t seem like that rare, exotic being. … Now, more and more out legislators are becoming normalized, and with the normalization, it allows for humanization to happen on the House floor.”
Israel, who has been with Garza for 18 years ever since mutual college friends introduced them, said she hopes to use her experience in a committed, long-term relationship to help change fellow legislators’ minds about marriage equality in Texas. Three pieces of legislation were introduced last year to bring the state’s 2005 constitutional marriage ban back before the voters. Doing so would require a two-thirds majority vote by both chambers.
While Israel said she doesn’t have “strong feelings about marrying in Texas,” she would like other LGBT couples to have the right.
“Personally, we haven’t given it too much thought,” she said of her and Garza marrying. “We really haven’t. I think older gay couples, in my experience, [think like that] because it was never something that we grew up with, when we talk about marriage, we talk about it jokingly. It’s something that we really don’t think about but probably should just from a legal perspective. But no, we don’t have any plans. But when we do it, I want to have a party, I want to have music and make it a big, fun thing.”
And she plans to use her experience to be another voice for LGBT Texans to advocate for equality by getting to know fellow legislators and helping them understand LGBT issues.
“I look forward to that opportunity because hopefully I’ll just be forging relationships in the House of Representatives that are issue-oriented, and we will make friendships with other Democrats and Republicans across party lines who are going to know me and like me and want to work with me,” she said. “And as we know, that’s how we start to melt the glacier of hate that we have come to expect in Texas. So I look forward to doing that with relationships and to the extent that I can with my leadership and my vote.”
Chuck Smith, executive director of Equality Texas, said he was “very excited to see Celia get elected” and thinks she will help pro-equality measures move forward in the House.
“Celia is an incredibly qualified, knowledgeable person,” Smith said. “She will make an outstanding state representative. It also helps to have additional out people in the Legislature.”
Five out candidates are running for the Texas House this year, a record for the state. Four openly LGBT candidates ran for the Legislature in 2012. Aside from Gonzalez and Israel, former State Board of Education member George Clayton is running in North Texas’ HD 102, Daniel Moran is seeking Denton County’s HD 63 seat, and Emy Lyons is running in HD 64.
Asked if Israel’s election will help boost support for other openly LGBT candidates running for state Legislative offices, Smith said it could help, as well as help with legislative efforts for the community.
“We’ve clearly seen in other states that it’s sort of a breakthrough in terms of the ability to pass legislation that it has a great effect if there are openly LGBT members that are colleagues,” he said. “When LGBT people are members of the legislative body it breaks down stereotypes, and it allows people to learn what the issue is and how it really affects people.”
Gonzalez said at the very least, Israel’s victory will help out candidates be confident in running as openly LGBT.
“What I think Celia’s win does is for anyone who is a candidate and is questioning whether or not to be out, just in the same way my win did, it creates a confidence, it takes away some of the fear around [being out[,” she said.
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition January 31, 2014.