New York Times, Posted: 12/28/2009, 1:59 PM
When an openly gay woman won the mayor’s race here this month, it was the latest in a string of victories by gay candidates across the country, a trend that seems to contradict the bans on same-sex marriage that have been passed in most states in recent years. Take Texas, by many measures one of the most conservative states in the nation. In 2005, it enacted a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage; the voters passed the referendum by a ratio of three to one. Yet in the last decade, an openly gay woman has twice won election as the sheriff in Dallas County, and another openly gay woman was elected district attorney in Travis County, which includes the city of Austin. Gay candidates have also won city council seats in Austin, Fort Worth and Houston. Then, this month, Annise Parker, the city controller who is a lesbian, swept to a solid victory in the mayoral race in Houston, the nation’s fourth largest city.

KPTV (Pennl.), Posted: 6/23/2009, 8:40 AM
The Department of Justice released its report Monday on Mayor Sam Adams' relationship with Beau Breedlove, finding that there was no evidence that Adams had sex with Breedlove before the ex-legislative intern turned 18 years old. The long-awaited 17-page report from Oregon Attorney General John Kroger says there's "insufficient evidence to charge, let alone convict, Adams." Adams, who is openly gay, admitted in January that he lied during his mayoral campaign about his relationship with Breedlove; however, he said his 2005 relationship with Breedlove did not become sexual until after Breedlove turned 18, the legal age of consent.

Q Notes (N.C.), Posted: 6/6/2009, 8:29 AM
An openly lesbian 2008 South Carolina Democratic candidate for Congress has called out three Palmetto State Republicans for being closeted gays in an interview for a progressive Democratic blog. The bombshell statements were made in a FireDogLake interview on June 1 from Linda Ketner, an openly lesbian 2008 Democratic candidate against South Carolina’s First Congressional District incumbent Henry Brown. “We have more gay people serving in South Carolina than probably in anyplace in the United States; they’re just not out of the closet,” she told blogger Howie Klein. “We have an awful lot of people in the closet — Lindsey Graham, Glenn McConnell who’s our Senate president pro tem, our Lt Governor [André Bauer].” Later in the comment section of the website, Ketner clarified her remarks, “By the way, in Howie’s intro, he quoted me as saying several members of state and U.S. government were gay,” she said. “I don’t know that for sure having never been intimate with any of them. Those are the rumors.”

Washington Blade, Posted: 4/18/2009, 6:47 AM
The newest openly gay member of Congress is considering introducing an omnibus LGBT rights bill in the U.S. House. Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.) told the Blade in a phone interview that he’s looking at the possibility of introducing such legislation, but hasn’t made any decision “about what that would contain and what the timeline would be for doing it.” Polis said he’s “very interested” in the concept of introducing a bill with “several aspects of the equality agenda.” He noted that he believes other lawmakers would be interested in introducing the bill. The nonprofit donors group eQualityGiving.org last month proposed that Congress tackle omnibus legislation that would include language regarding hate crimes, employment non-discrimination and “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” as well as language from other LGBT rights-related bills. 

Associated Press (AP), Posted: 4/15/2009, 9:40 AM
An openly gay state senator has received a death threat. Public safety officials say Sen. Matt McCoy, a Des Moines Democrat, received the threat by telephone on Monday. The threat was made as opponents of gay marriage continue to pressure lawmakers to take steps against a ruling by the Iowa Supreme Court that legalized same-sex marriages in Iowa. McCoy confirmed it was a death threat, but declined to talk about details. Courtney Greene of the Iowa Department of Public Safety says McCoy met with state troopers at the Capitol, but because the threat wasn't received at the Capitol, it was referred to Des Moines police. Greene says the patrol has received information that a number of lawmakers have been receiving "troubling" calls and e-mails.

Pink News (U.K.), Posted: 3/16/2009, 3:51 PM
An openly gay Social Democrat Party (PSD) politician is to stand for mayor of Guadalajara in Mexico. Miguel Galán, 31, will discover whether his party will put him forward as the official candidate at the end of this month, reports The Argentimes. Guadalajara has a traditionalist reputation and is currently controlled by the conservative National Action Party, which Galán has accused of being homophobic. He has said the gay community live as "second class citizens" in Mexico, adding that the country is "chauvinistic". Galán, who opened Mexico's first gay radio station, insists that while gay rights are important to him they will not be his only objective. He hopes that the debate can go beyond his sexuality, but added: “If they [the opposition] want to talk about that it’s my pleasure, but we will also talk about theirs.”

Miami Herald, Posted: 3/11/2009, 7:39 PM
The gay community was fired up politically after feuding with Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jim Naugle in 2007, but that didn't translate to success at the polls. Coleman Prewitt's loss last night in a district City Commission race in Fort Lauderdale means that all five gay candidates lost in the February and March elections. Michael Albetta, president of the gay group Dolphin Democrats, says that gay candidates lost to better-known or financed opponents -- not because they were gay. Prewitt had only lived in his district a year while winner Romney Rogers had lived there for decades and had a warchest of nearly $40,000 more than Prewitt. Gay activists are celebrating the success of Anthony Niedwiecki in Oakland Park. An openly gay candidate in Dania Beach, Derrick Hankerson, lost.

Dallas Voice, Posted: 3/11/2009, 5:29 PM
Jared Polis, the 33-year-old freshman Democrat from Colorado, put his foot in his mouth last weekend in Austin while addressing the Texas Stonewall Democratic Caucus. One of three openly gay members of Congress, Polis was asked about rural hate crimes. Polis responded that if local authorities refused to investigate anti-gay hate crimes, Brown should contact federal authorities, implying that federal law includes protections against hate crimes based on sexual orientation. Texas Stonewall President Dan Graney quickly interrupted and reminded Polis that there are no federal protections against anti-gay hate crimes. The Matthew Shepard Act, which would add sexual orientation and gender identity to federal hate crimes protections, passed both the House and Senate in 2007, but it was removed from a Defense Reauthorization bill after President Bush threatened to veto it.

Posted: 2/18/2009, 8:48 AM
Beau Breedlove, the former lover of gay Portland, Ore., mayor Sam Adams, has accepted Unzipped magazine's offer to be featured on the magazine's May cover and traveled to Los Angeles this weekend for a nude photo shoot, editors announced on Tuesday. Breedlove's name was thrust into the spotlight in January, when Adams admitted to having an affair with the former state legislature intern. The affair allegedly took place in 2005, when Adams was a Portland city commissioner and Breedlove was just 18 years old. Adams had previously maintained their relationship was strictly platonic. Unzipped's website, Unzipped.net, quickly became the go-to destination for all things Breedlove when editors posted a photo gallery of pictures from Breedlove’s now deleted MySpace page. When interest in the photos took off, the magazine extended an offer for Breedlove to appear on the cover. Breedlove agreed to the offer for an undisclosed amount of money.

South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Posted: 2/9/2009, 11:26 PM
Earl Rynerson is an openly gay businessman with a history of curious legal problems and an apparent penchant for bondage pornography. And he thinks he's just the man to be your mayor. The 56-year-old former lieutenant colonel in the Air Force is injecting some color and controversy into an otherwise quiet mayoral race in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Rynerson is running as a fiscal conservative, calling for pay cuts for highly compensated bureaucrats and pledging to rein in the city's swelling budget. But the beachside businessman has encountered some major fiscal problems of his own. Rynerson has been sued numerous times since he moved to Fort Lauderdale 10 years ago, refusing to pay local businesses and credit card companies for services rendered -- and running up thousands of dollars in unpaid bills.