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Loading ...Florida town gets first gay city councilmember
11.03.2009 9:46pm EST
Victory Fund-endorsed candidate Steve Kornell has won his groundbreaking race for a seat on the St. Petersburg City Council. The first-time candidate is a social worker in local schools and the latest in a growing number of LGBT Floridians seeking local office in a state with virtually no statewide protections for the LGBT community.
I’m another St. Pete native and am proud that my hometown has taken this big step forward. Since my mother died in 1998, I don’t get down there much any more, but I hope to be able to attend St. Pete Pride one of these years.
@Kevin Lawrence … AMEN MY FRIEND! I too grew up in the CITY of St. Petersburg!
THE ST PETERSBURG TIMES is one of the nation’s VERY BEST newspapers. It has been POLITICALLY VERY PROGRESSIVE for DECADES. The Poyner family owned the SPT from 1912 to 1978. Nelson Poynter, who died suddenly in 1978, made arrangements for the SPT to be owned in perpetuity by a non-profit entity …. Thereby sparing it the fate of being spayed and neutered by corporate, profit-first owners in the manner that has befallen major papers in Chicago, Los Angeles and numerous other cities coast-to-coast.
BTW The Times Publishing Company owns the CONGRESSIONAL QUARTERLY (that Nelson and Henrietta Poynter founded).
INFORMATION FOR THE UNDER-INFORMED
Founded in 1876, St. Petersburg is the fourth largest city in Florida with a population of approximately 250,000 people, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates. St. Petersburg is part of the Tampa–St. Petersburg–Clearwater metropolitan statistical area, which is the twentieth largest in the United States with a population in excess of 2.5 million people.
St. Petersburg is located on Florida’s central Gulf coast, across Tampa Bay from the city of Tampa Bay. St. Petersburg is a past finalist community for the National Civic League’s “All-America City Award”. Tampa-St. Petersburg also ranked fourteenth on Inc. magazine’s list of “The Top 25 Large Cities for Doing Business in America”. St. Petersburg is home to two Fortune 1000 companies, and nearby Tampa is home to four more.
I was BORN & GREW UP in ST. PETERSBURG!
Coincidentally, my sister and I just SOLD OUR FAMILY HOME in St. Pete (My parents both died a month apart in April-May this year.) that my folks built in 1957 to a GAY COUPLE! Not planned but we were delighted. Can’t wait to tell them (1)the house has been GAY-AFFIRMING since 1973 when I came out, and (2) they are NOT the FIRST PAIR of GAY MEN to SLEEP in the MASTER BEDROOM — my partner of 21 years (who died in 2005) and I slept their while visiting mom and dad … It was MY DAD’s IDEA for us to do so!!
DELIGHTED BY THIS NEWS! THE LGBT COMMUNITY in ST PETE has GROWN TREMENDOUSLY in RECENT YEARS!
Please don’t call my home city a town, especially not when you call Kalamazoo a city. Oh, and go Steve! I followed this race for months.
Yay! Keep getting in there on the local level and work your way up. It’s exponentially harder to vote away our rights with members of our community sitting on the council or in congress.
You, GO!
i could not be prouder to live in his district.
Congratulations ! Yeahhhhhhhhhh !