Hawaii State Representative Adrian Tam. At a mere 28 years old, Tam was elected in November to his first term. He is the only out LGBTQ+ person in the state’s House of Representatives.
It’s how he won and who he beat that caught my eye.We were staying in the iconic Honolulu neighborhood of Waikiki, which is part of Tam’s district, so I reached out to see if he had time to meet.
My interest in speaking to Tam went beyond his being so young, openly gay, and Asian-American. I wanted to learn more about how he won his seat in the general election by beating the founder of the Proud Boys chapter in Hawaii.I was early for our meeting and grabbed a socially distanced table outside a coffee shop in Waikiki.