The interview I did with Representative Jared Polis (D-CO), a.k.a. one of my favorite people ever, is now online at Campus Progress. In researching (rather exhaustively) Polis’s career in preparation for this interview, I definitely found a good chunk of issues on which I disagree with him. But anyone who champions education, environmentalism, and of course equal rights for LGBT Americans still gets my support. What’s more, he’s funny and personable, and didn’t treat me like a kid. For that reason, this interview is my favorite thing I’ve ever done in the year-plus I’ve worked for Campus Progress.
I’m making an effort to step outside the LGBT bubble and cover other issues affecting young progressives—just as Polis, I think, would like to further his work on the wide variety of issues that are addressed by the House instead of having to devote so much time to being one of only three point people on LGBT issues. But I’m so grateful that my summer job affords me the opportunity to meet and talk to people like Polis who, whatever their way of dealing with LGBT identity politics, represent incredible advances in diversity and equal representation in our country’s most august institutions. Fifty or so years ago, Polis, as a federal employee, would probably have been fired on the basis of his sexual orientation. Yesterday, I saw him stand at a press conference with Barney Frank and Tammy Baldwin, all three of them able not just to be out but to introduce a bill that, if signed into law, will ensure that such things won’t happen again. What’s the line about the arc of history bending towards justice?
Emily Rutherford 