Robert Garcia, the Democratic mayor of Long Beach, California, is set to become the first LGBTQ immigrant to serve in the United States Congress.
On Tuesday, Garcia beat Republican candidate John Briscoe in California’s 42nd Congressional District.
His mother came to the United States when he was five years old, having been born in Peru. Garcia’s finest experience, according to his campaign website, is becoming a U.S. citizen, which is why he entered public service.
Garcia is married to Matthew Mendez Garcia, a professor at California State University, Long Beach, making him not only the latest Hispanic immigrant to serve in the United States Congress but in the LGBT community, he was the first to do it.
“We are a community that respects our families, and that includes trans and LGBTQ people,” Garcia told Telemundo. “However, we must acknowledge that if Republicans obtain more seats in Congress, they will have a greater capacity to restrict the rights of women and homosexuals.” “That is not what we want for our wonderful country, which must continuously move forward.”
During the coronavirus outbreak, Garcia became more well-known in the national political arena as mayor of Long Beach. He took a firm stand in response to the epidemic, advocating vaccination among his voters in particular.
Garcia, on the other hand, was immediately affected by the COVID-19 epidemic. The infection killed both his mother, a frontline healthcare worker and his stepfather.
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“It just became so much more serious and personal for me, and I didn’t want anyone else in our community to experience what I did.”
