Leading from the Left

Tuesday, June 05, 2007

Deep in the Heart of Texas

With 10 openly gay or lesbian elected officials, Texas is moving to the forefront of southern states in terms of LGBT equality---yeah, Texas. Go figure. Florida, which has 22 openly gay/lesbian elected officials is the only Southern State with more. North Carolina has an embarrassingly low number, with only 5 openly gay/lesbian elected officials.

Texas has elected LGBT'ers to a surprisingly wide range of offices--from the Sherriff of Dallas County to Dallas Clerk of Court to Houston's City Controller, the second most powerful position in Houston. We've made such strong progress that there is a darn good chance that Ed Oakley, an openly gay City Councilmember, will be elected Mayor next week. Here's an article about Ed's race.