Meet the gay 19-year-old who made history as Utah's youngest elected official

Jackson Lewis didn't set out to make history when he decided to run for his local school board seat, but that's exactly what he did.

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The 19-year-old didn't only become the first out LGBTQ+ person elected to his position when he won his race for the Canyons School Board District 1 in November — he also became the youngest elected official in Utah. Lewis wasn't aware of this when he decided to run, but says he was instead motivated to get involved after seeing the issues facing his community.

As an employee at the state legislature's Office of Legislative Research and General Counsel, and also as a student of Hillcrest High School, Lewis says he often heard complaints "about the Utah State Legislature's repeated insistence on passing an enormous amount of education bills per year, which causes a bunch of stress and headaches for education staff."

"I thought there was no better way to get involved, not just in my own community ... but just getting involved in just the election process," Lewis tells The Advocate. "I wanted to represent the teachers that got me through high school, my peers, my friends, my family."

Lewis now represents his former high school, which his younger sister still attends. One issue important to him is "chronic student absenteeism," as he himself was a chronically absent student at one point. He believes one way to address this is by using "applied learning" instead of lecture-based settings, which can help students focus. Another way is to "push back school start times."

"I was a chronically absent student for a portion of my high school time. One of the things that the district did to help me crack out of it was instead of going in at 7:30, I went in at 9:30 and I got the sleep I needed," Lewis says.

Another issue important to him is "protecting student pedestrians" and creating "greater access between neighborhoods and schools." After covering nearly every street in his district on foot for his campaign, and often walking to school when he was a student, Lewis says with authority that "the sidewalks need to be worked on."

"There is often times a lot of difficulty getting from neighborhood to neighborhood, and that discourages pedestrian use of our streets. And it creates a much more hostile environment for student pedestrians," he explains.

Lewis believes that his proximity to those he's serving will be what makes him an effective school board member. He also hopes that his presence will help "introduce Gen Z to a lot of people who don't know Gen Zers very well," as young people are facing challenges unique to their generations.

"I was a post-COVID student. It was hard to go back," Lewis says. "The whole world's changed, the district needs to to change with that."

Lewis also believes thatGen Z is a generation that views politics differently than those came before it, as they were introduced to it during a particularly polarizing time. He explains: "We're the generation that was raised predominantly after 911. Most of us don't remember that. Most of us don't remember the wars. Most of us don't remember the recessions. What we do remember is 2012 and on. A lot of us got introduced into politics due to the 2016 presidential election, for better or worse."

For LGBTQ+ young people, the struggle has been compounded by their coming of age within a shifting landscape for queer rights, something Lewis says he has experienced growing up in a conservative state.

Lewis says that he "had it kind of easy." He was raised by lesbian parents and he also a supportive friend group. Still, he waited to come out until January 2021. He recalls facing bigotry in school, sharing that he had been directly called slurs as well as has heard "casual usage of extremely homophobic and queerphobic slurs all the time."

"I went through elementary school, middle school, and a good half of high school as a closeted kid. It was not good for my mental health," Lewis says. "I did not like most of my time in school. When you feel like you have to hide yourself — even if it's not for any particular reason — it still is a scary thing."

"It fills my heart whenever I see queer people take hope from this race," he continues. "Being a queer kid in Utah, it was hard, but it made me who I am."

The 19-year-old's election has been one of the LGBTQ+ victories providing a bright spot during an otherwise dark election cycle. Lewis says that he is particularly troubled by the "double digit point shifts with young men" to the right, asserting that Democratic officials need to do more "to reach out to my demographic in order to win the next election."

"These voters need to be met where they are," he says. "We don't watch cable, we barely watch TV. We watch streaming services. We need to be reached online. We need to be reached on TikTok, and, unfortunately, we need to be reached through Joe Rogan. ... We need to speak to bread and butter issues, like talking about the economy. We need to speak in a way that's accessible to people."

Though the next four years are going to be rough, there are still ways the average person can push back. Lewis says that "the most basic thing everyone can do is just know who your elected officials are, and when it's time for elections, know who your candidates are."

"Your local elections matter much, much, much more than what goes on in DC," he says. "DC is monumentally important, do not get me wrong — but what happens on your school boards, what happens in your city councils, what happens in the let your state legislatures, that's what's going to change your life."

Beyond that, Lewis highlights the need for LGBTQ+ people to "be in the places where these [anti-LGBTQ+] laws are going to be written," as even just being an out queer person in the public eye can change someone's mind.

"I worked for the Utah State Legislature for this 2024 session. A lot of really bad pieces of legislation were passed during that time, especially regarding queer people," Lewis says. "I know it does make difference when people go and testify. Whether or not you're changing lawmakers' minds, the media is in the room and your voice is going to be projected on TV, radio, publications on the internet, all across the country."

"You don't have to be an elected official to be involved. Go talk to your local city councilor, join your local organizations, attend marches, attend meetings, attend everything," he continues. "Sometimes the best thing that can be done is just queer people being involved, being in the space, because then it shows that we're just normal people."

Lewis stresses that this isn't just a fight for LGBTQ+ people, as everyone has something to lose.

"If you choose not to do politics, it doesn't matter," he says. "Politics will always choose to do you."