Politics Turn Cities Into Gay Tourist Hot Spots?

Houston’s election late last year of its first openly gay mayor – Annise Parker – coincided serendipitously with a renewed effort to attract gay and lesbian visitors to the fourth-largest city in the nation.

In the eyes of the city’s tourism office, Parker’s election was not only an important political win, but also presented a marketing opportunity. The city launched a campaign titled “My Gay Houston,” featuring gay Houstonians in print advertisements and on a newly-revamped website, as their latest effort in a years-old gay campaign.

More at: Edge Boston!

Houston Mayor Calls Swearing-in Milestone for Gays

Houston Mayor Annise Parker said Monday her election to lead the nation’s fourth-largest city marked a milestone for gay Americans but was just “one step toward a tomorrow of greater justice.”

Parker was sworn in over the weekend in a private ceremony and repeated her oath during a public ceremony Monday. Her partner, Kathy Hubbard, held a Bible that belonged to Parker’s grandparents for the swearing-in by U.S. District Judge Vanessa Gilmore.

Parker took almost 54 percent of the vote in a runoff last month, defeating former city attorney Gene Locke in a race to succeed Bill White, who had reached his term limit. Her election made Houston the largest U.S. city to elect an openly gay mayor.

“I spoke on election night of that being an historic election, and my election made news all around the world,” she told the more than 1,000 people who gathered at the city’s Wortham Theater. “Now, Houstonians weren’t very surprised they elected a gay woman. We have a tradition of electing mayors not for who they are but for what they believe we can do as a city.”

More at: Chron.com!

Gay Politicians a Step Ahead of Gay Causes

When an openly gay woman won the Houston mayor’s race this month, it was the latest in a string of victories by gay candidates across the country, a trend that seems to contradict the bans on same-sex marriage that have been passed in most states in recent years.

Take Texas, by many measures one of the most conservative states in the nation. In 2005, Texas became the 19th state to enact constitutional amendments banning same-sex marriage; the voters passed the referendum by a ratio of 3 to 1.

Yet in the last decade, an openly gay woman has twice won election as the sheriff in Dallas County and another openly gay woman was elected district attorney in Travis County, which includes the city of Austin. Gay candidates have also won city council seats in Austin, Fort Worth and Houston.

Then, this month, Annise Parker, the city controller who is a lesbian, swept to a solid victory in the mayoral race in Houston, the nation’s fourth-largest city.

There are currently at least 445 openly gay and lesbian people holding elected office in the United States, up from 257 eight years ago, according to the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, a political group that supports gay candidates.

More at: The Star Tribune!

Election Shows the Future Has Arrived in Houston

Early in her victory speech, Houston Mayor-elect Annise Parker addressed the pink elephant in the joy-throbbing room, the history she’d just made as an openly gay candidate for the top office in America’s fourth-largest city.

“All right,” Parker said on Dec. 12, as her partner of nearly 19 years beamed at her side, “let’s get this out of the way. Here’s the announcement that you’ve been waiting for: I am proud, very proud, to have been elected the first, the very first graduate of Rice University to be mayor of Houston.”

Her supporters burst into laughter and cheers at what was a textbook moment for other aspiring lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender candidates. A little humor does indeed go a long way. But in this case, the humor carried with it some Texas-sized truth about why Parker won: Voters appreciated her deep Texas roots.

Parker was born and raised in Houston, graduated from Rice, worked 20 years in the oil and gas industry, then began a political career — serving six years on the City Council, then five as city controller, where she was in charge of billions of tax dollars and oversaw Houston’s investments.

As her campaign website put it, Parker has “Houston Hometown Values.”

More at: The Cap Times!

Houston, We Still Have a Problem

The election of lesbian Annise Parker as mayor of Houston, similar to the election last year of African-American Barack Obama as president, was another mature moment of Americans judging individual people of color and homosexuals by the content of their politics. Not yet answered is whether America is ready to let such figures use their office to remediate the economic and education disparities and the civil rights gaps that still bedevil people of color and gay and lesbian people in general.

America is getting better at the individual level. The question is when will that translate into critical progress for the groups Parker and Obama come from.

Start with Parker. Houston became the largest yet in the United States to elect an openly gay mayor. Her sexual orientation meant less than her six prior citywide election victories for either city council or controller. The Houston Chronicle called her a grassroots “policy wonk’’ who “happened to be gay.’’

More at: Boston.com!

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