Sacramento Gay Democrat Builds Political Force

In the hardscrabble steelmaking area of Sparrows Point overlooking the Chesapeake Bay, Ed Bennett cut his political teeth, working gritty precincts east of Baltimore to re-elect President Nixon.

It was an unlikely beginning for the man who 36 years later would lead Northern California’s largest Democratic Party organization and the Sacramento region’s campaign to keep same-sex marriage legal.

“I’ve never missed an election. And, I’ve voted Democratic ever since,” Bennett says of the 1972 election year that hooked him on politics.

Bennett, 49, is president of the Sacramento Stonewall Democrats, at the helm during a pivotal year for gays and lesbians.

A Navy veteran who came out to his mother during a heated discussion about singer Anita Bryant’s anti-gay crusade in the 1970s, Bennett is building the 5-year-old organization into an influential political force.

Democrats, whether they are running for school trustee or Congress, have sought the club’s endorsement recently.

“Part of what Ed’s tried to do is see that Stonewall is positioned to have influence,” said Sacramento Mayor Heather Fargo, who won a Stonewall endorsement early in her re-election bid.

Get more on this story at sacbee.com.

Kansas Governor to Address GLBT Democrats

A gay Democratic group mapping strategies to influence the Democratic National Convention will hear from a politician known for securing gay rights in solid GOP country.

Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius plans to address the Stonewall Democrats in Denver on Saturday. Last year, the Democratic governor signed an executive order adding sexual orientation to state nondiscrimination policies.

Stonewall Democrats say federal nondiscrimination laws should be a top priority for Democrats this year. They concede their party is unlikely to talk much about gay marriage during the presidential campaign. Nominee-in-waiting Barack Obama has said he supports civil unions but not gay marriage.

Read more at kwch.com.