Via QPDX
Although Nationally the Senate managed to keep Democratic control and locally Kitzhaber narrowly beat out Dudley, it was a pretty bleak election for queers and liberal allies. Three Iowa Judges were voted off the bench when opponents of same-sex marriage targeted them in an intense campaign to boot them off the state Supreme Court because of a unanimous ruling last year that legalized same-sex unions. But there were a few meager bright spots for queers.
Only recently have gay mayors of major cities started to become common….well at least not unheard of since the election of our own Mayor Sam Adams and Houston Mayor Annise Parker. Now, one has emerged in the South as Lexington, Kentucky elected its first openly gay mayor. Vice-Mayor Jim Gray was victorious Tuesday night in his second campaign for the city’s top job, beating incumbent Mayor Jim Newberry.
So too have we become a little used to seeing gay members of Congress, especially since out House member Barney Frank is so outspoken and has been in office, like, forever. But Tuesday saw only the 4th openly gay individual elected to congress when Rhode Island’s David Cicilline was elected. The 49-year-old Providence mayor beat Republican state Rep. John Loughlin on Tuesday in the race for the 1st District seat Kennedy had held for eight terms. So there’s hope for LGBT politicians to go from local to national positions.
On a slightly smaller note, Connecticut elected Kevin Lembo as State Comptroller. He joins only a few other officials elected to statewide positions, including Oregon’s own bisexual Secretary of State Kate Brown, Oregon Supreme Court Justices Rives Kistler and Virginia Linder, and Linda Vanzi, a judge on the New Mexico Court of Appeals.
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