Are we still at the point where every electoral victory by a gay politician requires "Gay" to be the first word of the headline? Even in a SF Chronicle story about Vallejo?
Further down: "[Osby] Davis, 62, a real estate attorney who aimed to become the city's first African American mayor, said Tuesday that he will ask for a recount."
Somehow I don't think his goal was in and of itself to become Vallejo's first AFrican American mayor. Strictly speaking I think his goal was just to become mayor.
Posted by Matt Bruce at November 21, 2007 10:55 AMIf not for this bit:
"Unless the outcome changes, Cloutier is set to become the first openly gay mayor in the Bay Area."
...I would have agreed with you. This shows, though, that it is still a landmark. There are very few gay people who are elected to office for the first time as being openly gay, and if the Bay Area hadn't had a single one yet, damn.
Posted by: M.S. at November 22, 2007 11:37 AMAs a point of reference, I don't think an openly gay person has been elected to a statewide office anywhere in the country, ever, and I can only think of one who had been reelected, a former State Auditor in Vermont. We have a few medium-sized city mayors, most of whom weren't directly elected by voters, and then a handful of state legislators in each state. California's unusual in that you've had openly gay individuals running for legislature with some regularity for 10 years.
It's remarkable how quickly these situations can achieve normality, albeit at a low level. We both remember when the Senate was 98% men, and when it was a big deal to have 6 woman senators. The first time a woman defeated an incumbent male senator was in 2000: 10 bonus points if you can name the two winners without googling. Now we have something like 16 women and no one thinks it's extraordinary for a woman to run for Senate. All of this happened in less than a generation.
This has clearly not happened with gay people yet, but perhaps your perceptions are following that life cycle without events having quite caught up.
Posted by: M.S. at November 22, 2007 11:44 AM