Why isn’t Kathy Kozachenko recognized more for this historic achievement?
Since we are well into the presidential election, let’s take a minute to highlight a significant moment in LGBT history regarding politics. In the spring of 1974, Kathy Kozachenko became the first openly gay individual to ever run successfully for political office in the United States. Kozachenko won her bid by earning a seat on the city council of Ann Arbor, MI. She ran under the Human Rights Party (HRP), which was seen as progressive at the time. Much like Bernie Sanders’ campaign today, the HRP spoke to and attracted young voters who were recently given the right to vote at 18 years of age, under the 26th Amendment. Some of the HRP’s principal concerns were withdrawing troops from foreign countries, and getting rid of the military draft. The party was also a strong advocate of LGBT rights and actively opposed laws against prostitution.
Kozachenko’s political platform included pursuing rent control and regulating landlord corruption, less police involvement, and the decriminalization of marijuana. All in all, her liberal views and outlook would have fit in very well with today’s political landscape. But for her to successfully win a campaign as a liberal, lesbian and female during that time period is an amazing feat in itself.
After a two-year stint on the city council, Kozachenko’s political career fizzled out though she continued to pursue activism in her local LGBT community. She later went on to meet her lifelong partner, MaryAnn Geiger and started a family. This past December, at 61 years old, Kozachenko gave an open interview to Bloomberg.com in which she said that the idea to run for office was completely spontaneous. She was an English Major at the University of Michigan at the time, and when asked to run as an openly gay candidate for the city council of Ann Arbor, she simply shrugged and said, “Okay. Let’s do that.”
Though Kozachenko may not have been the first openly gay individual to hold political office, she was indeed the first to run openly and win. Because of this, Kozachenko feels as though she’s been somewhat overlooked. “But what could I do, anyway?” she told Bloomberg. “Call someone up and say, ‘I was the first?’ I couldn’t do that. What would that say about me?”
“I don’t think I was brave, because I was in a college town where it was cool to be who I was,” she continued. “On the other hand, I stepped up and did what I felt needed to be done at the time. Maybe that’s the whole story, that ordinary people can do something that then other people later can look back on and feel really good that they did this.”