We’ve always known Fort Worth City Councilman Joel Burns is an up-and-coming gay political leader who’s bound for bigger and better things (Fort Worth mayor? Texas Legislature?). So it isn’t terribly surprising to learn that Burns has been selected as one of 10 openly LGBT leaders from across the country who’ll receive scholarships to attend a three-week program at the Harvard John F. Kennedy School of Government this summer.
Burns, who became Tarrant County’s first openly LGBT elected official in 2008, has been named to the Gay and Lesbian Leadership Institute’s 2010 class of David Bohnett Gay & Lesbian Leadership Fellows, according to GayPolitics.com. Two groups of five Bohnett Leadership Fellows will attend the school’s three-week Senior Executives in State and Local Government program for mid-career professionals in June and July.
Among those joining Burns will be Idaho State Sen. Nicole LeFavour, Rhode Island State Rep. Frank Ferri and Kim Iwamoto, a state school board member from Hawaii who’s the nation’s highest ranking openly transgender elected official. It’s no small scholarship, either, as the fee for the course is listed at $11,200. You can read the full description of the program here, but we’re suggesting they add a “what-you-did-last-summer” section so Burns can tell them all about the Rainbow Lounge raid.
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CONGRATS!!! Couldn’t be prouder of you.