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The Supreme Court decisions and a broader societal shift towards LGBTQ acceptance have not, however, ended the harassment of the community. Fuller recounted a number of incidents in the past two years in which local LGBT individuals have been hassled because of their sexual orientation, including once by a person wearing a \"Make America Great Again\" hat. According to Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ civil rights organization, 22 transgender people have died due to fatal violence in 2018. Last year the total was 29, the highest number ever recorded by the organization.

Additional legal protections for the LGBTQ community are being sought by legislative means, and though community members are optimistic about Colorado's increasingly progressive laws -- those governing marijuana possession and use were among the first of their kind in the country -- LGBTQ advocates have run into roadblocks over the past four years when they attempted to make it easier for transgender people to change their birth certificates and outlaw conversion therapy on LGBTQ minors.

Daniel Ramos, the executive director of One Colorado, an LGBTQ advocacy organization located in Denver, said that while gathering bipartisan support, the both measures failed in recent years in the state's Republican-controlled Senate. In addition to Polis' history-making campaign, Colorado Democrats' top priority this week is to win back that chamber.

\"For the work that we do, we know that the governor can only do so much,\" Ramos said. \"And that the more work we do to change hearts [and] minds in Colorado and across the country around LGBTQ issues is even more important.\"

\"While we may have a pro-equality majority in state legislature and a pro-equality governor, the important work we still need to do is to tell stories and to humanize the impacts of legislation for LGBTQ folks. Having a gay governor doesn't make everything else go away.\"

Though Polis has been a public figure in the state for decades -- prior to his run for the House he was a chairman of the state board of education and a prolific philanthropist -- he has not been immune to attacks on his sexual orientation. The appearance of homophobic bumper stickers against Polis were reported in the town of Eagle, Colorado, and police have located a person of interest, according to Fox's Denver affiliate KDVR.

But as for his sexual orientation's impact at the polls, the Democrat was adamant that voters are focused on the bigger picture.

\"I think what the people of Colorado care about is: who's going to make my life better?\" Polis said. \"They don't care about who you are and who you love.\"

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