A total of eight states and one territory have elected a total of twelve openly LGBT people to statewide or territorywide elected offices: Jared Polis (Governor of Colorado), Maura Healey (Governor of Massachusetts and former attorney general of Massachusetts), Tina Kotek (Governor of Oregon), Kate Brown (former Governor of Oregon and former secretary of state of Oregon), Tammy Baldwin (United States senator from Wisconsin), Kyrsten Sinema (former United States senator from Arizona), Dana Nessel (Attorney General of Michigan), Kris Mayes (Attorney General of Arizona), Ricardo Lara (Insurance Commissioner of California), Kevin Lembo (Comptroller of Connecticut), Josh Tenorio (Lieutenant Governor of Guam), and Benjamin Cruz (Public Auditor of Guam).
In 2013 Demetrios Marantis became the first openly LGBT person to serve in a cabinet-level position in the Cabinet of the United States, serving in the cabinet of president Barack Obama as U.S. trade representative in an acting capacity following the departure of U.S. trade representative Ron Kirk.
Pete Buttigieg was nominated by Joe Biden for the position of secretary of Transportation and became the first openly LGBT Senate-confirmed Cabinet member following his confirmation on February 2, 2021.
The first openly gay judge in the United States was Stephen M. Lachs, appointed by Governor Jerry Brown to the Los Angeles County Superior Court in 1979.
[145] (Judge Vaughn Walker of the Northern District of California served from 1989 to February 2011 but did not come out until April 2011, after his retirement.