The Fourth Largest U.S. City Might Just Elect a Lesbian Mayor

by Michael Jones · 2009-08-22 08:59:00 UTC
Topics:

Annise Parker

The vote on same-sex marriage in Maine won't necessarily be the only election that LGBT folks will be watching this coming November.  The fourth largest city in the U.S. - Houston, Texas - will be holding its mayoral election, and on the ballot is a 20-year public servant in the city who has been elected citywide six times with broad-level support.  Oh, and did we mention that she's openly lesbian?

Annise Parker, currently the Houston City Controller, is running against three other candidates for the city's top spot.  Parker, a candidate supported by the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, is the most experienced candidate in the race, and the candidate who has been endorsed by SEIU, UNITE HERE, as well as 56 precinct chairs from the city of Houston.  In other words, she's got a great network of support for what may just be a history making election in Texas.

Parker was profiled by the Washington Blade this week, and in the article Parker says that her activism within LGBT rights circles feeds directly to the type of activism she wants to do as Mayor to make Houston a better place.

“I … spent 10 years as the most visible lesbian activist in Houston — in Texas — and I spent 10 years very active in civic clubs and on quality-of-life issues in Houston,” Parker said. “At some point, I realized that I would get more accomplished from the inside than the outside.”

And talk about being on the inside.  If she's elected Mayor this November, she'll be the highest-ranking LGBT politician on a citywide level anywhere in the country, joining openly-gay Mayors in Portland, Oregon and Providence, Rhode Island.

Parker's Facebook page is here.  She's also an avid Tweeter (or Twitterer, depending on how you like your vocabulary).

Protecting marriage equality in Maine.  Electing an openly lesbian Mayor in Houston.  Oh yeah, and let's not forget about New Jersey, where the Governor's race is also partly a referendum on the future of marriage equality in the state.

Election Day 2009 is shaping up to be just as important - at least from an LGBT perspective - as Election Day 2008.

Michael Jones is a Change.org Editor. He has worked in the field of human rights communications for a decade, most recently for Harvard Law School.
PREVIOUS STORY:
Onward Gay Clergy
NEXT STORY:
Bullied high schooler convinces MPAA to change ‘Bully’ rating to “PG-13”

COMMENTS (6)

    Comment Policy

    · All fields are required to comment.

    [X]

    Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the campaign on Change.org. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments which, as determined solely in our discretion: (1) are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; (2) include content solely intended to personally attack the campaign creator, (3) are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them; and/or (4) violate our terms of service and/or privacy policy. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion. Please also be advised that: (A) we do not actively curate and/or monitor in any manner whatsoever the comments made on the Change.org platform, and (B) the creator of each campaign on Change.org may remove any comment at her/his/its discretion.