Born: 1953, United States
Died: NA
Country most active: United States
Also known as: NA
The following is excerpted from Infinite Women creator Allison Tyra’s book Uncredited: Women’s Overlooked, Misattributed, and Stolen Work.
In some cases, it is not the work, but an achievement that others assume a man accomplished first. Kathy Kozachenko became the first openly homosexual political candidate in the United States to win an election, in 1974—three years before Harvey Milk was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977. Yet, Milk is widely credited as the first, not least because his natural flamboyance and assassination the year following his election added to his name recognition. It’s also worth noting that Kozachenko was only 21 and a third-party candidate when she was first elected to the Ann Arbor City Council in Michigan, while Milk was 47, had been active in politics for years, and was running in arguably the most queer-friendly city in the country (as opposed to the typically conservative Midwest), with the backing of the powerful Democratic party.