(Houston) Houston won’t know who its new mayor will be until next month.

City controller Annise Parker and former city attorney Gene Locke are headed to a runoff to become mayor of America’s fourth-biggest city.

Parker, who would be the first openly gay mayor of Houston, collected nearly 31 percent of the …

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Southwark votes in first openly gay mayor

The first openly gay mayor of Southwark, south-east London, has been elected.
Councillor Jeff Hook, whose full title will be The Worshipful The Mayor of Southwark, will take on the role for the 2009-10 period with his civil partner as his official consort.
Speaking to PinkNews.co.uk, Mr Hook said that although he is the first openly gay mayor in Southwark, he is not the first in the UK. Robert Crossman who served as Mayor of Islington in 1986-7, is believed to hold that title.
Regarding the importance of public figures’ openness about their sexuality, he said: “I’d like a situation where it’s not an issue. A gay person can ride to the top as much as anyone else.”
Mr Hook, the representative for Rotherhithe, reportedly took on tough competition in the run-up to being elected. See Southwark votes in first openly gay mayor
PinkNews.co.uk

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Mike Gin, Redondo Beach’s Chinese-American, Rotarian, Gay Mayor

After months of living legal limbo, Redondo Beach Mayor Mike Gin’s marriage was finally declared legal several days ago by the California Supreme Court. But marital validation was no tonic for Gin, who wasn’t celebrating the landmark decisions on same-sex marriage issued last week by the California Supreme Court.

“It’s a bittersweet feeling,” he admits. “My husband and I are thrilled about that part of the ruling that affects us, but there are many other couples now who cannot share in the happiness that we were able to experience on our wedding day. I’m hoping that someday all of us can experience that same happiness.”

Gin and his husband, Christopher Kreidel, were part of the pool of approximately 18,000 gay people married after the California Supreme Court ruled a year ago that same-sex marriages were legal, but before the Proposition 8 vote last fall banned same-sex marriage.

Despite the ruling early last week upholding Prop. 8, he is not discouraged. He notes that Prop. 22, the long-standing gay-marriage ban overturned by the courts last May, passed in 2000 with 60 percent of the vote, while Prop. 8 passed with only 52 percent.

“I think it is still a very strong social issue on both sides in our society right now,” he says. “But the voting numbers show that as a society we’re moving in the right direction.”

Gin is an unusual public official in that he is gay, married, Asian-American — and popular at a time when California politicians are reaching new lows in approval-rating polls. After serving eight years on the Redondo City Council and four as mayor, Gin has developed a reputation as a classic old-school politician who listens patiently to residents, considers a wide array of arguments and interests before making a decision, and goes out of his way to avoid confrontation.

See Mike Gin, Redondo Beach’s Chinese-American, Rotarian, Gay Mayor

LA Weekly

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Gay mayor’s illicit love is talk of conservative Texas

The small Texan city of San Angelo has been turned upside down by one of the most unusual sex scandals ever to impact on American political life.

Joseph Lown, the popular mayor, suddenly resigned last week after revealing he had fallen madly in love with an illegal immigrant. That was the first revelation; the second was that his new partner was another man.

Not surprisingly the news has become the talk of Texas. In the socially conservative and solidly Republican state, gay marriage and illegal immigration are probably the two hottest potatoes in town.

Perhaps, then, it was no wonder that Lown announced the end of his career from Mexico, where he had fled with his new boyfriend and from where he could mourn the end of an otherwise successful political career.

The news came as a bombshell. Lown, 32, had just won a fourth term with 89 per cent of the vote. He was immensely popular after having worked long hours to fix the city’s infrastructure and attending hundreds of community meetings.

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