(marlon reis and jared polis; jared polis)
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Hey! Great news, folks! Something historical and very important happened a few weeks ago, and we at East Village Afternoon didn't even hear about it until today. We just had our first ever openly gay man elected to Congress! Who knew? Jared Polis is the new Representative for the 2nd Congressional District of Colorado. Congrats, Jared!!
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The U.S. Congress has had other openly gay Representatives, Barney Frank being the most well known, but Frank and others "came out" after they were elected. Also, Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, who was elected to Congress in 1998, was the first openly gay person elected, but until now, we've never had an openly gay man elected.
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Polis is a very successful entrepreneur, philanthrophist and former chairman of the Colorado State Board of Education. Polis founded American Information Systems, an internet access provider, and also BlueMountainArts.com, an online greeting card site which he later sold to Excite@Home in a deal worth $780 million. He has founded charter schools for at-risk youth, also in 2004 he founded the New America School, which serves immigrant youth, and in 2005 he co-founded the Academy of Urban Learning, a school serving homeless youth or those in unstable living conditions. This guy is good!
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Polis is partnered with Marlon Reis, a novelist and board game inventor. Sadly, there is no mention anywhere of Reis on Polis' official website, even though most other American politicians go out of their way to prominently post pics of their smiling families on their respective websites. So obviously, the gay community still has a few miles to go before we can claim complete victory on the political front, but hey, for now, we're not complaining. In fact, we're thrilled for Polis, and us, and we hope he, (and Tammy Baldwin), are just the first of many to come.
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Read more about Jared Polis at www.JaredPolis.com, and at his official Congressional website at Polis.House.Gov.
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