Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual State Legislators in the United States Developing a New Database

The goal of this project is to develop a database of GLB state legislators that can be used by different researchers, thereby creating a common database that will allow the work of one scholar to be replicated by another. The purpose of this paper is to make an effort to provide an accurate and comprehensive list of all LGB legislators in American states and to raise some of the questions and issues that have to be answered in deciding who should and should not be included in the database. In developing this database, one also learns of some of the specific features of American state legislatures that make the project more challenging.