America gets first openly-gay senator

Update: 2012-11-08 01:06 GMT
Tammy Baldwin on Wednesday became the first openly gay senator in the US history when she defeated former Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson.

‘I am honoured and humbled and grateful, and I am ready to get to work - ready to stand with Barack Obama, and ready to fight for Wisconsin's middle class,’ said Baldwin to raucous cheers at her victory party.

Although 50-year-old Democrat Representative Baldwin made history after becoming the first openly gay senator-elect in US history, her sexual orientation was largely a non-issue in the race, the Huffington Post reported. Thompson's political director had tweeted a message in September, deriding Baldwin's ‘heartland values,’ accompanied by a video of Baldwin dancing at an LGBT pride parade.

‘I am well aware I will be the first openly gay member of the United States Senate,’ Baldwin said.

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