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11/08/2006
Victory Fund: Gay Candidates Elected in Record Numbers
Sixty-seven candidates endorsed by the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund were elected in 2006 (some earlier in the year) to federal, state, and local offices, according to a press release from the LGBT political action committee:
"Key victories across the country include Patricia Todd (whose ugly battle we posted about earlier this year), who will represent District 54 in the Alabama State House. Todd is the first openly gay person ever elected to any office in the state; Kathy Webb, who will represent District 37 in the Arkansas State House. Webb is the first openly gay person ever elected to any office in the state; Henry Fernandez, who won a seat on the Lawrence Township School Board, making him the first openly gay person ever elected to any office in Indiana; Al McAffrey (whom we've also mentioned here), who will represent District 88 in the Oklahoma State House. McAffrey is the first openly gay person ever elected to the Oklahoma state legislature; Jolie Justus, who will represent District 10 in the Missouri State Senate. Justus is the first openly gay state senator in Missouri history; Ed Murray, who will represent District 43 in the Washington State Senate. Murray, a former state representative, is the first openly gay state senator in Washington history; Matt McCoy, who becomes the first openly gay candidate ever elected to the Iowa legislature. McCoy, a sitting state senator, came out during his last term; Ken Keechl, who won a seat on the Broward County Commission in Florida, beating an appointee of Gov. Jeb Bush; Jamie Pedersen, (another elected earlier this year)who becomes the third consecutive openly gay person to be elected to represent District 43 in the Washington State House; Judge Virginia Linder will join Rives Kistler on the Oregon Supreme Court, making it the first state ever to have two openly gay Supreme Court Justices, according to preliminary results."
According to the Victory Fund, seven states (Alaska, Louisiana, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, West Virginia) still have no openly elected LGBT officials at any level of government, and 13 states (Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Indiana, Kansas, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Wyoming) have no openly LGBT legislators.
Sphere: Related ContentPosted 12:12 PM EST by Andy in Democratic Party, Elections, Republican Party | Permalink
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perhaps a record number of 'OUT' candidates is a more apt title...
Posted by: b | Nov 8, 2006 12:15:07 PM
well, perhaps this is a better example of "working from within" to change things than that of Log Cabin Republicans and those closeted gay republican staffers.
GOOD for them!!
Posted by: hoya86 | Nov 8, 2006 12:39:34 PM
Andy: Thank you for this posting. THIS is why I read you every day. I would not have found this information accessible anywhere else.
Posted by: PSMike | Nov 8, 2006 12:48:16 PM
I sincerely hope these fresh faces are the future of the American political machine.
Posted by: Michael W. | Nov 8, 2006 12:56:03 PM
PSMIKE, this entire entry was copied verbatim from a press release. Easily accessible stuff.
Anyway, this is great news, and we have won the Senate, too!
Posted by: Anita Woodward | Nov 8, 2006 1:03:07 PM
And Now Rummy's resigning!!! WOOOT!
Posted by: David | Nov 8, 2006 1:04:15 PM
That McCoy's a looker, huh?
I'm so glad to see there are OUT representatives over there on the Hill. What sayest the Log Cabins about this?
Posted by: Derrick | Nov 8, 2006 1:16:45 PM
RUMMY RESIGNED! MUHAHAHHAHA! EAT SH#T!
Posted by: Astro | Nov 8, 2006 1:17:58 PM
This is truly a great day in American histroy. Let's hope the VA senate race goes Democrat, and we will take the senate too!
Bush = Lame Duck!
Posted by: Hallelujah | Nov 8, 2006 1:29:45 PM
Hey! That's not all the gay folks elected! Florida just elected a gay gov...oh wait.
;-)
Could McCoy, Justus, and Pederson be any cuter?
Posted by: sam | Nov 8, 2006 1:46:25 PM
Wonderful, wonderful, let it continue.
Posted by: EM | Nov 8, 2006 1:55:48 PM
I could not be any happier;
gay candidates elected, democrats finally getting in, and Britney leaving Fedex!
Pop the champagne!
Posted by: Cris | Nov 8, 2006 2:34:41 PM
Also, I'm wondering why this was neglected: Mike Nelson, former mayor of Carborro, NC (and first out gay official for the state) was elected to the Orange County Board of Commissioners .
Posted by: tekay | Nov 8, 2006 2:40:50 PM
You forgot Crist!!! Gay Republican governor of Florida!
Posted by: Todd Marsh | Nov 8, 2006 3:06:49 PM
Minor point, I suppose, but Ed Murray is NOT the first openly gay person to serve in the Washington State senate - that was Cal Anderson, who died several years ago. Cal was a great guy and deserves to be remembered. He held the seat that Ed Murray has now taken. (Ed was Cal's campaign manager way back when.)
Posted by: seattle | Nov 8, 2006 3:12:30 PM
"What sayest the Log Cabins about this?"
I'm couldn't be happier as long as they keep their hands outta my pocket ;-). I would like to point out that a moderate republican in Indiana was replaced by a pro-life, anti-gay marriage democrat last night. Although we have many allies in the democratic party remember the entire party is not friendly to us.
Posted by: Brian | Nov 8, 2006 3:49:05 PM
Straight people! [can we please find something to replace "breeders"?!] Can't live with 'em; can't.....
From columnist Joe Klein at "Time" magazine online about Georgie's press conference dimwitticism:
"here's the origin of "this AIN'T (he said isn't) my first rodeo": "This ain't my first rodeo" means "this isn't my first time." Vern Gosdin released the song "This Ain't My First Rodeo" in 1990 and the phrase became popular after that in the 1990s. That, my friends, is what we in the biz call "reporting."
No, my friends, that's what we with any knowledge of camp movie classics call "clueless." While it's probably true that the line existed long before Faye Dunnaway, as Joan Crawford, castrated the Pepsi board of directors who were trying to force her out after her husband's death, is it unrealistic to imagine that its persistent presence in the culture derives less from that obscure song than her, "Don't fuck with me, fellas! This ain't my first time at the rodeo!"?
Not the most serious point of the day, but Georgie's amping up the wattage on his fake Texas accent only further demonstrates that he's likely to remain a phony overall for the remaining two years of his term. After which he will be as welcome in DC and GOP circles as Mark Foley at a bar mitsvah.
Posted by: Leland | Nov 8, 2006 5:29:52 PM
And, Brian, could you please name names re "moderate republican in Indiana was replaced by a pro-life, anti-gay marriage democrat last night"?
Thanks.
Posted by: Leland | Nov 8, 2006 5:43:11 PM
I'd hit Mccoy. Pedersen looks like a nebbish.
Posted by: Becks07 | Nov 8, 2006 6:45:33 PM
Dear sweet Anita. Glad you felt it necessary to comment on a compliment not directed to you. I hope you feel complete. This is why the Republicans and the Christian Right will always be a threat and a force. They acknowledge a higher power or a greater need than their own individual compulsion of self-importance. I should be the better man by not responding, but, sadly, I'm fallible. I'm sure I don't share that with you.
Posted by: PSMike | Nov 8, 2006 7:24:00 PM
Don't forget gay leaders Rep. Jackie Biskupski and Sen. Scott McCoy, both of whom were RE-ELECTED to serve as state representative and state senator in (*gasp*) Utah!
Posted by: Brandon | Nov 8, 2006 8:31:12 PM
The election of these out and outspoken gay men and women is even more important as the slither of the other side becomes ever more slick. The following is a guest OpEd that appeared in today's "Washington Post." It appears that some among the American Taliban realize they have a PR problem [couldn't have anything to do with recently revealed repulsive, dirty sex pigs who love their Tina like they love their Lord Jesus Christ, I suppose]. One of the writers is a prof at Pepperdine which gets a lot of money from Richard Mellon Scaife who spent millions trying to destroy Bill & Hill. Much as they have tried to reframe their bigotted actions in terms of "religious freedom," now they want people to "ignore those men behind that curtain trying to destroy the civil liberties of millions of LGBT Americans." Peppered [pun intended] with all kinds of feel good words and deeds, I guarantee you it will be swallowed by a lot of people, even some of the Post's liberal readers.
"LET'S STOP STEREOTYPING EVANGELICALS
By Joseph Loconte and Michael Cromartie
Wednesday, November 8, 2006; A27
It was in 1976 -- the "year of the evangelical," according to Newsweek -- that conservative Christians burst upon the political landscape. Critics have been warning about the theocratic takeover of America ever since. Thus the plaintive cry of a Cabinet member in the Carter administration: "I am beginning to fear that we could have an Ayatollah Khomeini in this country, but that he will not have a beard . . . he will have a television program."
This election season produced similar lamentations -- Howard Dean's warning about Christian "extremism," Kevin Phillips's catalogue of fears in "American Theocracy" and brooding documentaries such as "Jesus Camp," to name a few. This theme is a gross caricature of the 100 million or more people who could be called evangelicals. But the real problem is that it denies the profoundly democratic ideals of Protestant Christianity, while ignoring evangelicalism's deepening social conscience. [UNLESS YOU KISS BOYS! - LF]
Evangelicals led the grass-roots campaigns for religious liberty, the abolition of slavery and women's suffrage. Even the Moral Majority in its most belligerent form amounted to nothing more terrifying than churchgoers flocking peacefully to the polls on Election Day. [WHERE THEY HAVE PEACEFULLY VOTED AGAIN AND AGAIN TO STRIP LEGAL RIGHTS FROM GAY AMERICANS, WHEN THEY WEREN'T BLOWING UP OR SHOOTING UP GAY BARS AND ATTACKING GAYS WHEREVER. - LF] The only people who want a biblical theocracy in America are completely outside the evangelical mainstream, their influence negligible. [GOLLY GEE, THAT'S GOING TO BE BIG NEWS TO ALOT OF VERY RICH LEADERS OF THE ANTIGAY INDUSTRY SUCH AS LA REV. JAMES KENNEDY. - LF]
So as Jerry Falwell and other ministers were jumping into politics, leaders such as Charles Colson -- former Nixon aide turned born-again Christian -- were charting another path. In 1976 Colson launched Prison Fellowship, a ministry to inmates, to address the soaring crime problem. Today it ranks as the largest prison ministry in the world, active in most U.S. prisons and in 112 countries. "Crime and violence frustrate every political answer," he has said, "because there can be no solution apart from character and creed." No organization has done more to bring redemption and hope to inmates and their families. [WHILE COLSON VEHEMENTLY OPPOSES "THE GAY AGENDA". - LF]
Evangelical megachurches, virtually unheard of 30 years ago, [UH, TRY 40 YEARS AGO. - LF] are now vital sources of social welfare in urban America. [UNLESS YOU'RE GAY. - LF] African American congregations such as the Potter's House in Dallas, founded by Bishop T.D. Jakes, can engage a volunteer army of 28,000 believers in ministries ranging from literacy to drug rehabilitation. [UNLESS YOU'RE GAY. - LF] Rick Warren, author of "The Purpose-Driven Life," has organized a vast network of churches to confront the issue of AIDS. "Because of their longevity and trust in the community," Warren has said, "churches can actually do a better job long-term than either governments or" nongovernmental organizations in tackling the pandemic. [WE'RE WAITING. - LF]
Whether or not that's true, these evangelicals -- Bible-believing and socially conservative -- are redefining social justice. [UNLESS YOU'RE GAY - LF] They're mindful of the material conditions that breed poverty and despair, but they emphasize spiritual rebirth. Though willing to partner with government agencies, they prefer to work at the grass roots, one family at a time. [UNLESS YOU'RE A GAY FAMILY. - LF]
Meanwhile, churches and faith-based organizations are growing enormously in their international outreach. Groups such as World Vision are often the first responders to natural disasters. The Association of Evangelical Relief and Development Organizations, founded in 1978, now boasts 47 member groups in dozens of countries. As anyone familiar with these organizations knows, they help people regardless of creed, race or sexual orientation [UNTIL THEY FIND OUT AND YOU REFUSE TO "CHANGE" - LF] -- another democratic (and evangelical) ideal.
It is surely no thirst for theocracy but rather a love for their neighbor that sends American evangelicals into harm's way: into refugee camps in Sudan; into AIDS clinics in Somalia, South Africa and Uganda; [WHILE PREACHING AGAINST CONDOMS AND GAY SEX. - LF] into brothels to help women forced into sexual slavery; [WHILE PREACHING AGAINST CONDOMS. - LF] and into prisons and courts to advocate for the victims of political and religious repression.
Indeed, probably no other religious community in the United States is more connected to the poverty and suffering of people in Africa, the Middle East and Southeast Asia. [OR THE SUFFERING OF GAYS WHEREVER. - LF] Walter Russell Mead of the Council on Foreign Relations argues that evangelicals offer moral ballast to American foreign policy. "[E]vangelicals who began by opposing Sudanese violence and slave raids against Christians in southern Sudan," he wrote recently in Foreign Affairs, "have gone on to broaden the coalition working to protect Muslims in Darfur."
Of course it's true that a handful of Christian figures reinforce the worst stereotypes of the movement. [YOU MEAN THE RICHEST, THE MOST POWERFUL, THE ONES WHO SPEAK TO THE PRESIDENT EVERY WEEK WHILE SITTING ON THE FACE OF A $100 DOLLAR AN HOUR PRO? - LF] Their loopy and triumphalist claims are seized upon by lazy journalists and the direct-mail operatives of political opponents. [YEP. THAT'S THE CAUSE OF ALL THIS MISUNDERSTANDING OF HOW REALLY LOVING THEY ARE. GLSEN'S OR NGLTF'S MAILERS RESTING SIDE-BY-SIDE IN MAILBOXES WITH THE LATEST PITCH FROM JERRY FALWELL, OR JAMES KENNEDY OR JAMES DOBSON OR....ASKING FOR MONEY TO HELP STOP THE HOMOSEXUAL MENACE. - LF]
Yet it is dishonest to disparage the massive civic and democratic contribution of evangelicals by invoking the excesses of a tiny few. [WHO HAVE WIPED OUT CERTAIN GAY RIGHTS IN MOST OF OUR STATES. - LF] As we recall from the Gospels, even Jesus had a few disciples who, after encountering some critics, wanted to call down fire from heaven to dispose of them. Jesus disabused them of that impulse. [WHILE SAYING NOTHING ABOUT "YE WHO KISS BOYS." - LF] The overwhelming majority of evangelicals have dispensed with it as well. [ON WHAT PLANET? - LF] Maybe it's time more of their critics did the same. [MAYBE IT'S TIME WE WORKED OUR ASSES OFF TO GET YOUR TAX EXEMPT STATUS TAKEN AWAY. - LF]
Joseph Loconte is a distinguished visiting professor at Pepperdine University's School of Public Policy. Michael Cromartie is vice chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. They co-direct the Evangelicals and Civic Life program at the Ethics and Public Policy Center.
Posted by: Leland | Nov 8, 2006 10:04:15 PM
Matt McCoy - handsome, smart, and an Eagle Scout to boot. Now THAT'S what my mom meant by the term "husband material"!
Posted by: Lance | Nov 9, 2006 9:49:55 AM