Gay men vie for East Bay House seat

Two gay men from Fairfield are vying for an East Bay congressional seat set to be vacated by Representative Ellen Tauscher (D-Walnut Creek), whose nomination to a key State Department post received bipartisan support from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee this week.

The full Senate is expected to confirm Tauscher prior to the July 4 holiday. A special election would then be held to fill her seat sometime in the fall.

Should either of the openly gay candidates secure her 10th District seat – and they both face obstacles in being elected – they would raise to four the number of out LGBT people serving in Congress.

Anthony Woods, 28, an African American Iraq war veteran, has gained the most notice, both nationally and locally. He has deftly used his being discharged from the military last December due to his sexual orientation to gain media attention as the debate over the Pentagon’s anti-gay “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy has heated up this spring.

But he is running as a Democrat and would need to best four opponents (so far) in the party’s primary for the special election. The top vote-getters among Democrats and Republicans would then advance to a runoff election, where independent candidates could also enter the race.

See Gay men vie for East Bay House seat

Bay Area Reporter

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