Thursday, November 05, 2009

LGBT Election Night Victories


You know, we got some bad news this week in terms of election outcomes and such, but there were a few Rainbow flags out there that deserve a salute.

Openly gay Mark Kleinschmidt won his battle to become the newest mayor of Chapel Hill, North Carolina. He is now the third openly gay man to hold mayoral office in the state, following Mike Nelson in Carrboro and Elic Senter in Frankinton. And, from what I've been able to find, he ran his campaign on issues such as providing better public transportation, community development, centralized urban growth rather than sprawl and environmental protection, and his sexual orientation wasn't even an issue.

That really is progress.

And on down Miss G's way, in Houston, openly gay City Controller Annise Parker and former City Attorney Gene Locke will face each other in a special run-off election in December. If Parker wins, she will be Houston's first openly gay mayor, and if Locke wins, he becomes Houston's second African-American mayor.

It's progress on either side, although I would like to see Parker take the office personally.

In a St. Petersburg, Florida, City Council race, Openly gay Steve Kornell became City Councilman, a boost to a city with a large gay population that has faced great opposition every year when trying to celebrate Gay pride.

And, finally, over in Atlanta, where a record-breaking 15 openly gay men and women ran for offices in the Atlanta metro area, four of them won: Brian Bates won election to the Doraville City Council, Melanie Hammet and Kathie de Nobriga to the Pine Lake City Council, and challenger Johnny Sinclair for Marietta City Council.

Maybe we'll make change from the inside.

1 comment:

Say anything, but keep it civil .......