Karen Clark, Longest Serving Lesbian State Lawmaker, Passes Away at 80
Clark, who fought for marriage equality, was the first out lesbian to serve in the Minnesota legislature.
Trailblazing lesbian state lawmaker Karen Clark of Minnesota died Tuesday at the age of 80 after a brief illness.
Clark was the first out candidate to run for a Minnesota state office and win, Minnesota Public Radio reports. Born in Oklahoma, the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party member represented several neighborhoods in Minneapolis in the state house from 1981 until 2019. She told MPR in an older interview, “I was elected in 1980, the same day as Ronald Reagan. And that’s where our similarities begin and end.”
“I had a lot of fun experiences and some difficult ones too. ‘People just understanding, oh my gosh, she’s a lesbian and she’s kind of a nice person and wow, what a surprise!’ It was like that kind of thing,” she told the outlet about running while out.
As a lawmaker, she helped pass the state’s Human Rights Act in 1993. She worked to ban LGBTQ+ discrimination in housing, employment, and education in Minnesota in 2013. That same year, her name was on the bill that legalized same-sex marriage in the state. Clark also worked on issues related to housing and the environment. She co-founded the Women’s Environmental Institute after leaving office.
Gov. Tim Walz remembered Clark as “one of the champions of Minnesota’s marriage equality law and a true legend in the House of Representatives,” in a social post on Wednesday.
Minnesota U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar wrote, “We lost a pioneer today. Karen Clark was a friend and a leader on marriage equality in MN and stood up for her district time and time again. She is someone who helped me when I first got started in politics. She was a mentor to so many!”
State Sen. Tina Smith said that Clark was “a fierce fighter for justice and freedom for all people.”
“May her memory be an inspiration to us all as we keep up the fight,” she said.
Out state Sen. Scott Dibble met Clark through his activist work and later became her campaign manager. He served with her for a term in the House, and said it was “incredible” to serve with his “hero and mentor.”
“She had this extraordinary combination of gentleness and fierce determination. She was indefatigable, determined, relentless. She really, really believed in standing up and being a strong voice for the people,” he told MPR. “She really felt strongly that it was important for them to be a part of the work, and to be a part of coalition and a part of putting together solutions to the problems.”
The DFL, which is affiliated with the Democratic Party, posted a statement online honoring Clark, calling her “a trailblazer in every sense of the word.”
“Karen devoted her life to building a more just Minnesota where everyone could live with dignity, safety, and opportunity. As the first openly lesbian member of the Minnesota Legislature, she broke barriers and played a defining role in securing Minnesotans’ freedom to marry,” the statement said.
