In the House, Kolbe is dedicated to promoting legislation to provide financial assistance to victims of hemophilia-associated AIDS. His efforts have focused on seeking full funding of the Ricky Ray Hemophilia Relief Fund.

"The face of AIDS is as diverse as our nation’s population: young, old, black, white, men, women, children and adults - this disease does not discriminate. AIDS will steal the breath of a child just a quickly as it silences the voice of a gay rights activist," stated Kolbe in his Sept. 12, 2000 column to constituents.

U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin
In 1998, Baldwin became the first woman elected to serve Wisconsin in the U.S. House of Representatives. She also claims to be the first gay person to run for and be elected to Congress after coming out. In her online biography, Rep. Baldwin states, "The first openly gay person to be elected to Congress as a non-incumbent and the first out lesbian, she has been a forceful supporter of civil rights and an advocate for those in our society whose voices, too often, are not heard."

On April 30, 2000 Congresswoman Baldwin addressed the Millennium March on Washington. Her speech Never Doubt, Baldwin expresses exactly what "coming out" meant to her:

"If I close my eyes, I can remember being here in 1987. I came to this city, this historic place, these steps. Why did I march? I was twenty-five years old and just one year into my first term in elective office in. I was OUT. I was at the point in my life where I had just realized that I did not have to choose between being honest about who I am and pursuing the career of my dreams. I could do both. And that moment of decision was, at once, one of the most terrifying and one of the most freeing of my life. So I marched ... to replace my fear with courage, my isolation with belonging, my anger with hope."  -- From Never Doubt, by Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin at the Millennium March on Washington -- April 30, 2000