South Carolina Elects Its First Openly Gay Lawmaker

By: Paul Goldberg, Staff Writer

South Carolina’s first openly gay legislator is capturing nationwide attention as he is the first Gay legislator in the ultra-conservative state.

In fact the state of South Carolina is known to be the home of the Christian fundamentalist school Bob Jones University.

Newly elected Republican Rep. Jason Elliott, a 46-year-old divorce attorney, told NBC OUT News that being gay was not an issue in his campaign and that the his sexual orientation is irrelevant to his job at the Statehouse.

Elliott further went on to state that his focus will be on improving education, increasing jobs and repairing the state’s crumbling roads and bridges. He further states that you can expect his voting record to align with his GOP colleagues.

“Every South Carolinian has equal rights, not special rights, and I believe each part of the constitution is equally important,” said Elliott. “In South Carolina, that means respecting other people’s viewpoints and protecting religious freedom.” said Elliott.

Newly elected Jason Elliott defeated four-term GOP incumbent Rep. Wendy Nanney, a Bob Jones graduate and daughter of the university’s longtime academic dean.  The conservative Republican state is now the 43rd state to have an openly gay legislator.

“There are people who have a 100 percent opposite viewpoint from me on the orientation issue, and I respect that, and I understand that, and I’m not threatened by that,” tsaid Elliott. “I think what it says, though, is that we are accepting the fact that people are different from us and that we are a state that is moving toward being open to folks who aren’t exactly like us.” concluded Elliott.

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