Earlier this month, media from around the country and around the world expressed shock when Houston became the largest city in the world with a lesbian mayor.
As the only member of the LGBT press at Parker’s election night party, I spent quite a bit of the night explaining to other members of the press why it was not a surprise that this happened in Texas, home of Molly Ivens and Ann Richards, not just Tom DeLay and George Bush.
The New York Times ran an interesting article today suggesting that voters may be more comfortable with qualified LGBT candidates even when they don’t support LGBT issues.
And politically, the person that got the biggest political bump out of all this election coverage may not even be Parker herself. Lupe Valdez has been mentioned in virtually every article printed in every paper around the world analyzing Parker’s election.
The narrative (started at the election night party by, well, mostly me) is that Texans have been electing qualified gay and lesbian candidates for years. For example, I pointed to at least one other gay elected official was at the party – Fort Worth’s Joel Burns.
So in today’s New York Times analysis, a week before Parker’s inauguration, Lupe Valdez’ picture appeared in the newspaper again.
And my invitation to the inauguration arrived today. Please feel free to comment below to Tammye and Robert that readers think I really really need to go.
Absolutely, David Taffet simply MUST be at Annise Parker’s inauguration. He did journeyman’s work covering the campaign in the weeks leading up to the election, and with no gay news weekly in Houston he was the most prominent and ubiquitous LGBT weekly news journalist reporting from the Convention Center on Houston’s historic night. Other news organizations did a great job of reporting on the election, but none seemed as passionate and invested as David’s blogs and articles. He even CALLED THE ELECTION. (At the time, I thought he might just be packing up his tent to get to the bar early, but it turned out to be enthusiasm as he obviously stayed to report on the gay exhultation.) Looking forward to reading his report on the inauguration! Thanks for sending him!
Absolutely. David must attend…and maybe I should as well just to provide some commentary?
Umm…the invitation didn’t have a bulk rate postage stamp on the envelope, did it?
https://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6791375.html
You’re all invited!