Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Wisconsin State Representative Zamarripa (D) Admits To Being Bisexual

JoCasta Zamarripa

Zamarripa comes out of the closet and confirms she is bisexual while campaigning to get re-elected to the State Assembly.

By H. Nelson Goodson
July 24, 2012

Madison - On Tuesday, JoCasta Zamarripa, 36, (D-Milw.) admitted to her bisexual preference on her Facebook account after struggling to admit she was actually a non-hetrosexual while she first ran for public office. She is an active member with the LGBT, a gay and lesbian rights group.
Allegations of Zamarripa not being a hetrosexual first surfaced several years ago during her campaign to get elected to the state legislature when a local Spanish newspaper editorial raised and questioned her sexual orientation for standing up for gay and lesbian rights. Despite the allegations, she ran for the 8th Assembly District seat after Pedro Colón (D) decided not to seek re-election and then was appointed judge.
Zamarripa won the election and defeated Laura Manriquez, a community activist. Manriquez is once again challenging Zamarripa for the seat on the August 14 election.
It's too early to determine, if Zamarripa's coming out will effect her re-election bid. The south side is considered predominately Hispanic, very conservative with religious traditions and beliefs of anti-gay, bisexual, lesbian or transexual orientation. But the younger generation of Latinos are more highly educated and more receptive to recognize everyone's sexual preference despite, Latino conservative traditions to reject gays and their supporters.
Within the last two years, the Democrats in the State Assembly have had little success in passing their own agenda or legislative bills, since the Republicans had control and continue to do so today in the Assembly.
Zamarripa on Facebook posted, "I made the decision to come out publicly today....I hope that you will all stand with me in continuing to celebrate diversity, champion equality, and always be authentic."
She was recently selected as Wisconsin Chair of Latinos for Obama, which is a bid to get President Barack H. Obama re-elected.
Voces de la Frontera, an immigrant and labor wage rights non-profit organization in a news release on Tuesday applaud Zamarripa for making her bisexual orientation public.
State Senator Tim Carpenter (D-Milw.), which represents Zamarripa's district in also openly gay.

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