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Born and raised in Birmingham, he first got here out as homosexual in 1998. His early teenagers had been crammed with taunting and bullying that he described as a “day by day gantlet.” He ran away from dwelling. Earlier than his junior yr, on the lookout for a recent begin, he transferred to a distinct college and didn’t reveal his sexual identification to classmates or lecturers.
Mr. Rafferty attended the College of Alabama at Birmingham and joined the Marine Corps. Whereas within the navy, he averted conversations about private relationships, though he was already in a relationship with the person who would later change into his husband. Solely after leaving the Marines, simply over a decade in the past, did he change into extra open about his sexuality.
He spent 9 years as an worker of Birmingham AIDS Outreach, working with younger folks and organizing H.I.V. testing occasions throughout the area. He ran for the Legislature in 2018, changing into solely the second brazenly homosexual lawmaker elected within the state. The primary, Patricia Todd, held the identical Birmingham-area Home seat earlier than him. At her retirement, Ms. Todd stated that she was most pleased with the Alabama laws that she had helped to dam — measures she thought of dangerous to L.G.B.T.Q. constituents.
Mr. Rafferty, too, has spent his time period within the Legislature working to forestall new restrictions on homosexual and transgender younger folks. He testified in opposition to such proposals. He linked constituents with Republican proponents of the measures, hoping to alter the lawmakers’ minds by making them extra comfy with homosexual and transgender folks and explaining the burdens they stated such laws would create. He introduced medical consultants and native organizers who present assist to L.G.B.T.Q. youth to the Capitol.
When the laws got here to the ground of the Home, Mr. Rafferty appealed to his colleagues on the premise of their conservatism, arguing that that they had no enterprise involving themselves within the selections of oldsters, docs and youngsters. “The place’s the liberty in that?” he requested. “The place’s small authorities in that?”
His efforts had been welcomed by homosexual and transgender residents, who noticed him as a singularly vital ally. “He has earned a level of belief with trans folks, not simply together with his illustration however as a result of he’s a part of our prolonged neighborhood,” stated Sydney Duncan, a lawyer and head of L.G.B.T.Q. authorized companies on the group the place Mr. Rafferty as soon as labored. “He has taken the time to coach himself on these points, and that has earned him a move with us to have the ability to characterize us and discuss to us and see that we’re handled effectively.”
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