Mel Manuel hopes to unseat ultra-conservative Rep. Steve Scalise

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When Katie Darling suggested Mel Manuel run against Steve Scalise in the 2024 congressional race for Louisiana's 1^st District, Manuel laughed. They were standing outside the Covington Library in Covington, Louisiana, following a library board meeting. At that point, Manuel had been steadily expanding their reach as a progressive activist in St. Tammany Parish, a notoriously conservative region of the state, since moving back to their hometown in 2021. At the time, they were still a private person and unsure if they were ready for the spotlight a political campaign would entail.

Manuel, now age 40, was raised in an ultra-conservative Southern Baptist home as one of 10 children. Sundays were for church and family, and Manuel's parents were strict, expecting their children to take their responsibilities seriously. Manuel and their younger sister, Christel Woods, played a large part in taking care of their youngest sister, Elise Viola, who is 12 years Manuel's junior. "Mel was always my biggest role model," Viola said.

Covington has changed substantially in the time since Manuel grew up there in the late '80s and early '90s. Manuel's sisters remember how Covington only had one movie theater, a Waffle House, and a McDonald's when they were growing up, noting that their family had to drive 20 to 30 minutes to get to any sort of mall or store. Development didn't start to change this until Manuel and their siblings were teenagers, and it was a "huge deal" when the Wal-Mart SuperCenter came to town, according to Woods. As a kid, Manuel and Woods loved to ride their bikes as far as they could. As long as they were home by 5 o'clock, the adults didn't care where they had gone off to. Woods remembers trying to keep up with Manuel, who was "quite adventurous and extremely intelligent" as a kid.

Despite the family's close-knit ties, Manuel felt like an outsider from a young age, as they were taught gay people were going to hell. Manuel said, "I knew I was queer when I was 8 and as a kid, I remember staying up at night, being scared I would die, and that's what would happen to me." St. Tammany Parish has been demographically dominated by a Christian, conservative population for decades. Manuel said there were no openly queer people in their life as a kid, nor did they see any positive depictions of queer people on TV.

At age 17, Manuel left the country for the first time on a Covington High School trip to Europe that broadened their perspective on the diversity of the world's other people and cultures. That first taste of alternate possibilities left Manuel hungry for more, and after graduating summa cum laude from Tulane University in 2006, Manuel set off to explore even more. As a young adult, Manuel was driven by a motivation to help others. Post-college, they began their professional career working in refugee resettlement in Houston, Texas. Subsequently, Manuel lived abroad in six different countries—Argentina, Italy, Bosnia, Korea, Turkey, and Spain—pursuing further educational and professional opportunities, including teaching and a short stint in immigration law. They found new opportunities to define themselves on their terms and deepen their compassion for other people's lived experiences with each new adventure. "When I was in my 20s, I thought I was going to live abroad and never come back," Manuel said. "Having a kid changed that."

Manuel returned to Louisiana in 2015 to live closer to their daughter and continued their work as an educator in public schools. They're introverted by nature, but they maintained an intensely private existence in those years primarily for self-preservation, because of the serious job security and custody ramifications that could ensue if they came out as trans. As the Gay Student Alliance (GSA) sponsor for their last four years teaching at a public high school, Manuel said, "I was kind of always waiting to get fired. I went to school with the feeling that any day could be my last day." In 2018, when Manuel met Jeremy JF Thompson, their best friend and eventual congressional campaign manager, there was no trace of Manuel on the internet—no social media profiles, not even a Whitepages record.

Together, Manuel and Thompson bought a double shotgun house in the St. Roch neighborhood of New Orleans and lived on either side of it. Their friendship provided space for deep introspection and revelation at a time when Manuel was grappling with the prospect of transitioning. The two friends would convene for long talks in the cocoons of their respective hammocks in the backyard or on long walks through the neighborhood. After significant, soul-searching consideration, Manuel finally decided to transition. Their first time presenting as their authentic queer, trans-masc, non-binary self was Mardi Gras 2020, a symbolic rebirth and a significant stepping stone on the path towards Manuel's embrace of their role as a community leader.

In 2021, having ridden out the height of the pandemic in the St. Roch double shotgun, Manuel and Thompson decided to move back to Manuel's hometown of Covington, Louisiana, nearly 20 years after Manuel left, so Manuel could live closer to their daughter. Confronting the prospect of spending the next decade in this conservative, Christian community where neither Manuel nor Thompson had a support network, the pair decided to start a social group to meet like-minded friends, Queer Northshore. What began as a Facebook group with a handful of folks has skyrocketed in the past two years, blossoming into a non-profit organization with thousands of members that has raised over $50,000 this year alone for queer community programming and resources.

Through Queer Northshore's auspices, Manuel and Thompson have created a safe space for a unified and supportive network of queer people and allies of all ages to convene, care for one another, and live as their authentic selves. In June 2024, Queer Northshore organized the Northshore community's first-ever pride parade, which drew over 600 participants. This family-friendly parade rolled with 30 krewes despite the rain and the contingent of religious protestors on the sidelines with signs proclaiming, "Hell is Real" and "Repent or Perish," kicking off a month of pride events in St. Tammany. 

For someone like Manuel's youngest sister Viola, who came out to her family as a lesbian at age 14, "It was so emotional to see so many people lined up [along the parade route] where I used to take my dog for walks or go for a jog when I was 15 and felt so, so alone. I felt elated and so proud, not just of Mel, but of my community." 

"When I grew up here," she continued, "I was the only out person in my school and I only knew one other gay person! Now I have more queer friends and allies than I could count, all right here. I think we were always here, now we're just louder, brighter, prouder—and know where to find each other."

As Queer Northshore gained its footing in St. Tammany, anti-LGBTQ legislation began ramping up across the United States, with 510 bills introduced across the country in 2023. As a queer educator, book bans hit particularly close to home for Manuel, who soon found themselves speaking regularly at public library board meetings in defense of their local library's right to provide a free, neutral, and accessible space for all citizens to access information and ideas, censorship-free. This experience led Thompson and Manuel to co-found the St. Tammany Library Alliance, which many Queer Northshore members flocked to. Quickly, a community that began as a social solidarity initiative evolved into a hub of grassroots activism.

With hundreds of titles being flagged by local residents and conservative groups such as Citizens for a New Louisiana for concerns that the books feature "pornography" and "pedophilia" and "confuse" readers about gender identity, Manuel, Thompson, and other Queer Northshore members felt compelled to protect their own and their children's First Amendment right to free speech. Manuel said, "People were accusing librarians of being pedophiles, which was so shocking that it really floored me. Louisiana is not some kind of liberal bastion; it is moderate at best in most schools here. Nobody's teaching kids in Louisiana about trans kids in the first place, most teachers here lean conservative. That there is some sort of 'trans agenda' happening in schools and libraries here is so far from reality."

As Manuel grew into a community leader through their activism, the prospect of getting involved in local politics became less far-fetched. Both Thompson and Manuel were elected to the Louisiana Democratic State Central Committee (DSCC) in March 2024, and currently serve on its executive committee. Taking a page out of Queer Northshore's book, Thompson and Manuel have kept conversation and community-building at the center of their political careers. While Queer Northshore hosts monthly peer support group meet-ups called "Two Beer Queers," Manuel and Thompson created similar local Democratic party meet-ups called "Drinks with the Dems." Thompson said, "The work of community building isn't just about registering voters and signing petitions, it's friendship, fellowship. If you start with that, you'll outlast anything else."

Given the Democrats' statistical minority in St. Tammany Parish: 40,801 registered Democrats to 89,216 registered Republicans, with 58,841 voters registered as "Other" as of April 2024, many Democrats already feel a kinship to the queer community, in their marginalization and tendency to keep their political affiliation private from their neighbors. Within this context, Manuel's proud embrace of a progressive agenda has been hailed as immensely brave by their fellow community members, straight and queer alike. Russell Gibbs, a registered Democrat and Marine Corps veteran who lives with his wife in St. Tammany Parish, said, "Mel has given me a new sense of courage," noting that he is considering a run for office himself. "If Mel can do it, when everybody sees the hate they're facing, the vitriol, then how can I, as blessed as I've been in my life, not want to be a part of something greater than myself?" Gibbs said.

When Manuel accepted Katie Darling's suggestion that they run against the current US House majority leader Steve Scalise in this November's election, they knew it would have wide-reaching consequences on their personal life. First and foremost, the majority of Manuel's family learned that they are queer, trans, and non-binary via their campaign announcement. Manuel was anxious about sharing the news this way, as most of their family members are very conservative, and feedback from their family has indeed been mixed. Manuel has worked as the director of operations for the Louisiana Abortion Fund since November 2023, but they are aware they will probably never be able to teach in a public school again in Louisiana—except for New Orleans or possibly Baton Rouge—now that they are officially out.

Despite these very real risks, from the beginning of their campaign, Manuel has tried to prioritize the fact that running for an office "gives you a mic, and a chance to speak about issues you care about." Akin to Katie Darling's decision to run against Scalise in 2022—when Roe v. Wade was overturned while she was pregnant, with a history of miscarriages and complications—Manuel's campaign endeavors to protect the safety and capacity for survival for Louisianans most affected by the repressive policies being passed by conservative Republican politicians on local, state, and federal levels. Darling, who went viral with a campaign ad in which she gives birth, said, "I was afraid of having a complication and dying, not of running a campaign against Steve Scalise. I thought if we don't fight this right now, and we let this legislation become normalized that puts medical providers and patients in jail, we're doomed."

Scalise has been representing the state of Louisiana for nearly 30 years. For 16 of those years, he has also been in the United States Congress representing Louisiana's 1^st District. As the House majority leader, Scalise wields tremendous power, and his conservative beliefs pose a serious threat to his constituents' fundamental human rights. Scalise has long allied himself with white supremacists, and in 2014, described himself as "David Duke without the baggage" to journalist Stephanie Grace. Staunchly anti-LGBTQ+, Scalise has opposed repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell, fought against including sexual orientation in hate crime legislation, and condemned the Supreme Court's landmark ruling on same-sex marriage. His voting record earned him a zero rating from the Human Rights Campaign, and the Washington Blade says he has one of "the most anti-LGBT reputations of any lawmaker." Scalise rejects the scientific consensus on climate change, opposes the Affordable Care Act, and is a fierce proponent of the Second Amendment.

Darling and Manuel's campaigns address all voters in their district, regardless of political party, by asking the simple question: In all that time in office, what has Steve Scalise done to improve your quality of life? Again this year, Louisiana ranked last in the country, according to U.S. News and World Report. Manuel said, "If you're a big corporation, Scalise is for you, but he's not doing anything to help average Louisianans." By calling frustrated voters into the conversation about how to make real change in the lives of average Louisianans, Manuel hopes to increase the Democratic percentage of this November's vote from 25 percent to 35 percent. The parish voted overwhelmingly for Donald Trump in 2020, where he won with a wider margin than in any other parish in Louisiana, and yet St. Tammany Parish has seen steady growth among Democratic votes in this congressional race in the past 10 years, with Democrats winning 21 percent in 2012, 10 percent in 2014, 19.5 percent in 2016, 26.5 percent in 2018, 25 percent in 2020, and 25 percent in 2022. 

St. Tammany Parish's population has quadrupled since 1970 and is expected to double again by 2030, with a projected increase in diversity. Because Louisiana uses a majority-vote system, if a candidate receives a majority of the votes cast for an office in the first round of elections, they win outright. If, however, no candidate reaches that threshold, a second round of voting is held between the top two vote-getters. This means that as Scalise's continued tenure in Congress becomes uncertain given his deteriorating health, more Republican candidates will likely compete for his seat. This year's election presents two Republican challengers for the congressional seat, Randall Arrington and Ross Shales. If the momentum keeps building behind Democratic candidates, winning 50 percent of the vote is within the foreseeable future, which presents a real chance for a Democratic candidate to win the House seat. Darling said, "When you start to see increased voter turnout, people start to invest more in candidates and races, and that's how you turn specific seats into competitive seats."

While Manuel is running a campaign designed to appeal to all voters, they are not shy about billing themselves as potentially "the most progressive candidate Louisiana has ever seen." Manuel's key platform issues include universal basic income, a single-payer health system, reproductive rights, gun control, environmental protections, investing in public education, and equality for everyone—with a focus on people of color, women, and the LGBTQ+ community. Manuel's campaign received a surge of popularity when a video of Manuel injecting themselves with testosterone went viral across queer news sites Them, Pink News, and LGBTQ Nation earlier this month. Even this intimate, vulnerable moment was shared in the same spirit as the rest of Manuel's campaign materials: to educate people and normalize the queer experience. To date, Louisiana is the only state in the country that has never elected an out legislator.

If Trump wins the presidential election, and if conservative Republicans continue enforcing their stranglehold over the state of Louisiana, the consequences will be dire. Ruby Porter, a 51-year-old trans woman who came out just last year thanks to the support of the community she's found in Queer Northshore, already lives in fear of being thrown in jail for using a public restroom that matches her gender identity. Porter said, "Basic human rights and freedoms, that's really what's at stake. We will lose human rights, across the board. I don't think the Republicans see that."

No matter the results of Tuesday's election, Manuel has already made tremendous strides as the face of progressive policy for St. Tammany Parish and Democrats across Louisiana. "No one is coming to save us," Manuel said, and their political engagement has become a question of survival. Leading by example, living openly as a queer person who approaches everyone with kindness and curiosity, Manuel is already inspiring others around them to get more involved in local politics and speak out on behalf of their community. Thompson said, "One benefit to being in the queer community, especially ours, is we have a lot of experience holding onto nothing but hope. You have to be able to persist well beyond immediate expectations or deliverance from problems." 

Movements build over time. May Manuel's story of steadfast courage light a torch for the next progressive community leaders to carry forward into the future.