Download Insider NJ’s 2019 OUT 100 LGBT Power List or view it below.

Welcome to Insider NJ’s 2nd Annual OUT 100 Power List, a tribute to influential LGBTs in New Jersey politics. I approached last year’s list as a one-off but the massive response demanded an encore edition.

We’re happy and grateful to oblige.

This year’s OUT 100 Power List emphasizes LGBT office holders in New Jersey. That’s why you’ll notice the top 50 is mostly loaded with elected officials who also happen to be Queer. Sadly, none of those LGBT officeholders sits in NJ’s General Assembly, home to 120 state lawmakers, none openly LGBT.

In a state where party line usually carries the day, the county party bosses vet- and ultimately select who’s on the ballot. And the 40+ women and (mostly) men running NJ’s county parties always choose a straight person. Does that feel like progress to you? Me neither.

NJ’s political candelabra grew dimmer this year with the passing of friends and allies like Babs Siperstein, Salena Carroll Lesniak, and Garfield DeMarco. We will venerate their colorful legacies in the pages below.

We’re eager to highlight the next generation of LGBT activists on this year’s list. They belong.

I’m proud to amplify and to highlight their vast, boundless potential. Get to know their names and get ready to watch them impact New Jersey politics in a meaningful way.

When I acquired HIV as a teenager back in 1992, it would’ve seemed miraculous that in 2019, the archivist would be me. Surviving the plague was hard, that’s widely recognized by now. But what most people don’t realize is that many Queer activists of my generation were ostensibly orphaned by AIDS.

Our mentors were dead or dying and we had no power to stop it.

But don’t feel badly, that’s not why I brought this up. I invoke the AIDS crisis, basically our darkest hour, to remind you how resilient this LGBT community truly is.

There are 100 example of that resilience in the pages below!

Download InsiderNJ’s 2019 OUT 100 LGBT Power List or view it below: