Hey, it isn’t all bad!
From the NY Times, no less:
Mayor elect, with her partner on the left
Houston became the largest city in the United States to elect an openly gay mayor on Saturday night, as voters gave a solid victory to the city controller, Annise Parker….
Tonight the voters of Houston have opened the door to history,” she said, standing by her partner of 19 years, Kathy Hubbard, and their three adopted children. “I acknowledge that. I embrace that. I know what this win means to many of us who never thought we could achieve high office.”
Hurrah!
This is really a great piece of news! I was following the news earlier when she was leading the count. (I read there was a lot of anti-gay rhetoric during the campaign.)
Vishal, yes there was. It didn’t work. Here’s a bit from the Houston Chronicle:
Come to think of it, the anti-gay nuts think it is reasonable to assume that not being gay somehow makes one eligible for any kind of office. Now, that’s really funny!
I think that in the last election, Texas turned out not to be a red state. In any case, Houston has a large arts community, and an active gay community. It is also generally ranked the second most African American friendly city in the US, with Atlanta no. 1. It is extremely diverse, and now, I think, a white minority city. It also took in many of the thousands and thousands of people abandoned in New Orleans. In doing so, it messed up the conference scheduling for hotels and the use of the astrodome, where people tended to be put as housing was sorted out. But, as Mayor White said, the city had to do it.
So it actually is quite OK, for a very large American city, which also means: tons of guns, many citizens without health insurance and grinding poverty in some areas. And people like Barbara Bush.