The Advocate Person of the Year: Tammy Baldwin

[PeaceNikki]

http://www.advocate.com/year-review/2012-review/2013/01/04/person-year-tammy-baldwin?page=0,0



Baldwin, who was sworn in Thursday as the first openly gay U.S. senator, says she hopes her own achievement will have a similar “ripple effect.” Speaking with The Advocate in her first interview of the new year, she notes that LGBT people have already told her, “This has changed me in some way,” when talking about her win.

“At every glass ceiling I’ve broken, I’ve hoped that that’s the message that goes out so loudly and clearly,” she says. “This is a message that we don’t have to limit our aspirations in this society anymore.”

From her election to the Dane County Board of Supervisors at age 24 to her service in the Wisconsin State Assembly to her election as the first openly gay nonincumbent in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1998, Baldwin, now 50, has always been a trailblazer. Now, with her seat in the U.S. Senate, the granddaughter of the head costume designer for the University of Wisconsin’s theater department moves to her most visible stage to date in what has been called the “world’s most exclusive club.” She joins the Senate as the freshman member with the most seniority.

“If you’re not in the room, the conversation is about you, even if you have a lot of allies there,” she says. “If you’re in the room, the conversation is with you, and that makes a huge and transformative difference.”

Go, Tammy!!!

[freshwest]

1. What a resume! Congratulations Senator Baldwin! Thanks, Wisconsin!

[PeaceNikki]

4. She's an amazing person! We done good with her...

[Helen Reddy]

2. Very, very proud of MY

Senator. Tammy Baldwin.

Still blows my mind that she overcame the gazillions of dollars that Mr. Wig-Pants had to smear her.

[PeaceNikki]

3. Mine, too!! AND, she beat a guy WHO HAS NEVER BEFORE LOST A STATE RACE!!

I simply adore her.

[Helen Reddy]

5. Watching Tommy in his ads,

I never had a feeling he was never in it to win it. His nonchalance campaign efforts came across loud and clear.

Either that or his super-sized ego rendered him blind and mute to his "lesser challenger."

[alterfurz]

6. love those two pix...

...let's make a triptych!

[PeaceNikki]

7. I love that one, too!

Very very much!