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Loading ...Houston mayor’s race going to runoff
11.04.2009 9:01am EST
(Houston) Houston won’t know who its new mayor will be until next month.
City controller Annise Parker and former city attorney Gene Locke are headed to a runoff to become mayor of America’s fourth-biggest city.
Parker, who would be the first openly gay mayor of Houston, collected nearly 31 percent of the vote Tuesday.Locke, with 25 percent, topped architect and urban planner Peter Brown, who had nearly 23 percent.
A runoff is needed because no one received 50 percent of the vote. A specific date has not yet been set for the election, but it will be in December.
A victory for Parker would make Houston the largest U.S. city with an openly gay mayor.
Thats great.. other than visibility which makes a statement on its own.. what else are these Gay mayors and gay politicians doing to advance civil rights for us?
Go Annise… where do we send $$? Will look.
As to what help are they? They are VISIBLE, community members who work hard to help others. Others who have never known a ‘gay person’ before and say…
Oh they’re just like me! ….
…and as my husband was converted to saying by David Mixner’s speech at NEM… What do you mean they don’t have EQUAL RIGHTS here in America. He had never looked at it that way before, was a instant convert.
HERE from Chuck Wolfe of the VICTORY FUND: “It was tough to watch what happened in Maine, but that painful loss is not the whole story of last night. We’re winning right now in Washington state, and voters in Kalamazoo overwhelmingly embraced equality in their city. And of the 79 openly LGBT candidates the Victory Fund endorsed for 2009, 50 are winning as of this morning and another six have advanced to runoff elections.
This was a year when LGBT candidates broke through in places they had never won before. Now Detroit, Akron and St. Petersburg will have their first openly gay city councilmembers. Chapel Hill, North Carolina elected an openly gay mayor. And in Houston one of CNN’s “Top 10 Races to Watch” went our way.
Last year the Victory Fund set a goal of helping Annise Parker become the next mayor of Houston, and the first openly LGBT mayor of one of America’s largest cities. Last night she took a huge step toward victory, finishing first in a crowded field of candidates and heading to a final runoff election in mid-December.
I’m so proud Victory Fund supporters like you were a big part of this victory. But we’re not done, so I can’t celebrate for long.
With less than six weeks until final voting in this historic election, Annise faces one last opponent, a corporate lawyer with deep ties to Houston developers.
Annise’s campaign is different. It’s always been about the rest of us – people who need our elected leaders to be our voice in government. She’s asked us to support her groundbreaking campaign so she can be that voice. And what a voice it will be.
But mark my words-the national attention this campaign received in recent days will generate another kind of attention. Now that Annise is this close to becoming the first-ever openly gay mayor of one of America’s largest cities, the anti-gay industry is on alert and scheming to block this progress. So I’m asking you to join us in the home stretch to defend Annise and drown out the lies they’ll try to spread.
Annise recorded a special video message just for Victory Fund supporters who’ve had such an amazing impact in this race. Watch it. Get involved. Help her achieve this historic victory and don’t let extremists derail our progress.
This has been an extraordinary year. We’re going to end it celebrating if you’ll stand with us, with Annise, and on the right side of history.
Yours in Victory,
Chuck Wolfe
Victory Fund President and CEO “
Annise Parker–I am so proud of you and salute you!! Good luck and God Bless in the runoff.
Can’t say I even really care anymore. We already lost Newsom. They could put a Nazi in Houston and it wouldn’t make a difference. That’s life. It’s crap. We are second class citizens. End of story. Bullshit, but true.
I am sadden that our society has sunk to the immoral level of even allowing a gay to participate in public office let alone assume the awesome responsibilities of a mayor over the 4th largest city in the United States of America. It is a sad day indeed but one that accurately reflects the moral depravity of this once great nation. The physical perversion of lesbianism and homosexuality are simply the physical manifestations of a soul that has turned its back on our Creator and His edicts of conduct and behavior. A man or woman who openly or secretly lives in perversion is an embarrassment to any and all people and basic decency…I am ashamed of you Houston even after I have served you for over 30 years…you embarrass me…shame on you!
Sylvia, what’s a good traditional woman like you doing on the computer, when a man could speak so much better for you? Isn’t there some vacuuming or laundry that you could be attending to? Your post was at 4.09 PM–you already have dinner ready for your man? Or is it that…is it that you don’t HAVE a man, which would suggest that you are a failure as measured by your own values? Just saying.
Sylvia Holtsclaw,
My first initial question is what on earth are you doing on this site? Did just happen to run out of things to rant about in your life that you surfed on the web, probably google the word ‘Gay’ and presto this site came up? I think it’s absolutely hilarious and at the same time pathetic that your happen to be ashamed of a city for allowing an Openly Gay Candidate to run for office…How miserable are must you be that you find satisfaction in judging other people…who by the way don’t care about you. I do not know you Sylvia…and yet I feel sorry for you.
Alexandra.
Hello Ladycop “Alexandra”, why do you suppose that my traditional lifestyle is miserable and that my dissatisfaction with a perverse segment of society is pathetic? I do not judge you, your perversion judges you and your lifestyle is simply one of many reasons why America is rapidly spiraling into a 3rd world status; hedonism and narcissism…a man shall not lie with another man as with a woman nor should a woman lie with another woman as with a man…that is detestable…and you should be ashamed of yourself!