03/20/2006
Two Gay Men Running for New Orleans Mayor
23 candidates are vying for the chance to take Ray Nagin's place and become New Orleans' next mayor.
Among them are two openly gay men, James Arey and Leo Watermeier.
James Arey, a classical-music disc jockey and music manager for the local National Public Radio station: "Lesbians saved my neighborhood. That is absolutely true. I had to evacuate to Atlanta because our WWNO studios were unavailable. We broadcast via a PBS satellite from Atlanta. Lesbians snuck back into my neighborhood after hours and before hours. They harassed FEMA representatives, they stopped Red Cross trucks and got food and water for workers, they brought in supplies and gas masks, they stayed on Entergy [the gas and electric company]. They got into everyone's house, with permission. They got out on the Web with the first pictures from the neighborhood. Anybody in that area that needed assistance, they were there to provide it."
Leo Watermeier, a former state representative and founding cochair of the Lesbian and Gay Community Center of New Orleans: "On the Web site it says I was co-chair of the Lesbian and Gay Community Center. But, like in life, people get to know you, and then as they get to know more about you, they learn more about you. So that was the kind of approach we took with the whole gay thing. Let people get to know me as a candidate ... and then it would become, like, 'Oh, yeah, he's gay,' and it's just another part of learning about him."
Posted 10:45 AM EST by Andy Towle in Current Affairs | Permalink
Like it?
Subscribe to FREE Towleroad daily headlines with our RSS feed!
RECENT STORIES:
Comments
You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.
Anyone but Willie Wonka Nagin.
Posted by: Tom | Mar 20, 2006 10:56:29 AM
Best candidate would be George aWol Bush, resign from President before he gets impeached for lying us into war...then he becomes New Orleans mayor and greets everyone on Bourbon Street with a big over-proof hurricane and a big sack of COCAINE just like when he was AWOL from Texas National Guard!
Posted by: brian nyc | Mar 20, 2006 11:18:59 AM
I love Arey's Salute to the Lesbians - he makes them sound like a Sapphic band of X-Men.
Posted by: Jacko | Mar 20, 2006 11:31:14 AM
I suspect that these men are token candidates and that the mayor will be re-elected to office.
I confess to an ignorance of New Orleans politics, but it seems that the gay presence is not residential, but touristic, and that the African-American mayor will be re-elected. I also suspect that the minority WASP community is Republican.
Posted by: Raymond | Mar 20, 2006 12:01:08 PM
They are fringe candidates but I applaud the effort. Although Nagin's re-election before Katrina was a solid bet, it is now far from certain. There a several formidable opponents including Mitch Landrieu, son of a former mayor and brother of US Senator Mary, and Ron Forman, a prominent business leader.
Raymond: As for conservative and republican, New Orleans voters are the only reason Louisiana still has a US Senator who is a Democrat. As for gay residents, come on down, there a quite of few of us.
Posted by: Jimmy | Mar 20, 2006 2:57:22 PM
raymond, your confession was correct. Jimmy, I'm curious how locals feel about Nagin these days? I suspect the national view on NO politics isn't very accurate.
Posted by: jon luddite | Mar 20, 2006 3:18:36 PM
There is hope for that city yet...it would be like a gay man to go in and take something that is so tragic and turn it around to something fabulous...
Posted by: Kelly | Mar 20, 2006 4:21:31 PM
All -
I have learned much from your posting. Is Landrieu, however, a Democrat or a DINO? I ask this question because there were many DINO's - like Billy Tauzin who switched parties after the election one year, and retained his chairmanship until he retired to become a lobbyist. But I am a Canadian with only a voracious appetite for information and a great appreciation for New Orleans Jazz and native cultures.
Posted by: Raymond | Mar 20, 2006 8:16:09 PM
That city doesn't need a mayor, Gay, straight or double-jointed. It needs a Marshall Plan. It needs a strong administrator with unlimited funds, and freedom from nearly every law on the books.
The next mayor had better be willing to kick some ass and break some rules, because patiently waiting for funding, and strictly adhering to existing zoning and building codes, it will take decades to rebuild New Orleans.
I don't think letting politicians run things is the best way to get them done.
Posted by: Jay Croce | Mar 21, 2006 12:42:08 AM
It would seem that it would take the budget that the Pentagon spends in Iraq and Afghanistan adventures to rebuild the Gulf coast from Gulfport MI to New Orleans LA.
A good friend lost his parish church and his wife in Gulfport. He sent pictures of the devestation. New Orleans, of course, is the integrity of the levees.
From my reading, I am assured that there is an agenda in play. It is both economic and political. The Right Wing neocon wants to gentrify the inner city that they abandoned in the great suburban flight decades ago. This means displacing and forever scattering the black and poor whites from those venues.
Rebuilding the inner city means to build luxury condominium residential properties, and 5-star hotels - high dollar boutique malls, and signature restaurants and entertainment sites. Of course, they can have the suburbs and commute in at $6.00 a gallon gasoline to carry silver trays and perform their "cultural tribal dance" for the tourists.
Of course, foreign investors will include those zillionaires from our best friends in all the world - the Saudi Royal Family and the bin Laden family.
Posted by: Raymond | Mar 21, 2006 3:16:27 AM
Right you are, Raymond. The week after the hurricane hit, Republicans met with statisticians who determined how the permanent dispersal of the Louisiana black population would turn the city and state more red. Actual numbers and percentages were researched and presented at the meeting. You see how serious they are about keeping any of those voters from returning to their homes.
Posted by: Brian NYC | Mar 21, 2006 8:27:16 AM
OMFG, here's TODAY'S news about how incompetent, unqualified Bush cronies and profiteers are making sure no one survives a New Orleans hurrican now OR IN THE FUTURE...
One more example of how Bush's incompetents are just in government to direct tax revenues to corporations and become lobbyists themselves.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-03-20-new-orleans-shelter_x.htm
New Orleans lacks emergency shelter as storm season nears
By Anne Rochell Konigsmark and Mimi Hall, USA TODAY
NEW ORLEANS — As hurricane season approaches, the city doesn't have an emergency shelter, and local officials are asking for federal help to get people out of harm's way if another disaster strikes.
Posted by: Brian NYC | Mar 21, 2006 9:23:08 AM