Senator Jesse Helms, who passed away in 2008, served North Carolina from 1973 to 2003 and was known for taking extreme anti-LGBTQ+ stances, even for the time. Helms’ granddaughter, Jennifer Knox, spoke to The Assembly about her experience of staying in the closet because of the late senator’s views on the community. Knox said “There really are, for me anyway, two Jesses – the granddad and the senator. The granddad is the biggest influence on my life.” Helms had publicly called homosexuality a filthy, disgusting practice and LGBTQ+ people weak and morally sick yet insisted in his last re-election campaign that he didn’t hate gay people, saying: “I don’t even know any homosexuals.” Knox added that his comments were “confusing and painful” and kept her in the closet for years. #Queer Up Politics