Houston Voters Elect 1st Openly Gay Mayor

Houston Voters Elect 1st Openly Gay Mayor

www.time.com

HOUSTON) — City Controller Annise Parker made history Saturday by being elected Houston's first openly gay mayor, seizing 53.6 percent of the vote in the hotly contested race.

"This election has changed the world for the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered community. Just as it is about transforming the lives of all Houstonians for the better, and that's what my administration will be about," Parker told supporters after former city attorney Gene Locke conceded defeat.

(visit the link for the full news article)

I'm kind of impressed by this article. I would have thought that a gay mayor in Houston would have been one of the last things to see this decade.

Perhaps they are a bit more liberal than I thought. What will this mean for equal rights in Houston? Will the mayor campaign for same-sex marriage?

Well it's nice to see some tolerance in state that most would consider intolerent.

Any thoughts?

~Keeper

www.time.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

You know, I always wanted a career in politics and thought that this would be the thing that prevented it, I live in Alabama and they aren't too welcome of people who are different. But when I read this it gave me a shred of hope.

reply to post by tothetenthpower



As a native Texan I can tell you that the large metropolitan cities in Texas are just like big cities all over the world with very cosmopolitan attitudes and mindsets... But in the Provence's and smaller burgs it's pretty much still the Old South.

Kinky and Willie rule......

reply to post by whaaa


I figured as much.

I live in the largest city of the province ( about 250K) and still people here show a very big lack of progression and understanding of the world and how it's changed.

So the rural areas are much much worse when it comes to back water idealogies and conservatism.

But I understand it, they are simply not exposed to anything more than the status quo.

~Keeper

Dallas I would believe but Houston is rather difficult to conceive this occurring in..... As posted earlier, The smaller rural owns are very much stuck in the era of the pre Civil War south, especially in the eastern part of the state.... Dallas has a rather large Gay community and about anything else you want except in the outer lying bedroom communities that are full of Bible beating right wing extremist and children that struggle to be accepted by their more affluent and socially accepted friends.... Plano was the teenage suicide capital of the world in the 1980s and a stay in an up scale psychiatric hospital was considered status amongst the children of old money families that could afford it...... Texas, you just got to love it.

Well, all in all, big deal. It must be said that it is pathetic that we as a nation would celebrate something as mundane as a "gay" person being elected to office. Just like electing a "black" person or a "hispanic" person or "short" person or a "tall" person or a "fat" person.

Having said that, I'm happy that people are looking past the insignificant and electing their leaders on their so called "qualifications" to lead a group of people. It's about time.