The Daily Background
| Houston, TX elects a gay mayor! How ’bout that?
by Arlen Parsa
Warm congratulations are in order for Texan Annise Parker (D), the new mayor-elect of Houston who happens to be a lesbian:
Annise Parker made history Saturday as Houston’s first openly gay mayor.
Parker, who served five years as city controller, beat former city attorney Gene Locke with 53.6 percent of the vote in a runoff election.
Both are Democrats who faced off for the second time because neither emerged with more than 50 percent of the vote in the November 3 election.
Parker’s election also makes her the second woman to become mayor of Houston. Other cities such as Providence, Rhode Island, and Portland, Oregon, have picked openly gay mayors. Houston is the fourth-largest U.S. city.
Parker’s victory is also remarkable because a few years ago, Houston rejected a referendum to offer benefits to same-sex partners of city workers. Also, the city sits in a state where gay marriage is against the law.
[…]
Parker, 53, has never shied away from, nor made an issue of, her sexual orientation. She has been with her partner for 19 years and they have two adopted children.
It should be noted that because this was a runoff, turnout was extremely small: only 16.4% those eligible voted. But still, a victory is a victory.
