From Staff and Wire Reports
A record number of openly LGBT candidates have been elected to public office in 2010, according to the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund.
“There is no sugar-coating the loss of so many of our straight allies in Congress, but we can be proud that our community continues to expand its voice at all levels of government in America,” said Chuck Wolfe, president and CEO of the Victory Fund. “Out public officials are having a sizable impact on the local, state and national debates about LGBT equality. Increasing their numbers is a vital part of a long-term strategy to change America’s politics and make our country freer and fairer for everyone. We will continue to focus on training committed, qualified candidates, and we will work hard to get them elected to public office.”
At least 106 of the group’s record-breaking 164 endorsed candidates were winners as of Wednesday morning, the Victory Fund said.
Perhaps the most pleasant surprise came in Lexington, Kentucky, where openly gay construction company executive Jim Gray won election as mayor. The Lexington Herald-Leader reported the news shortly after the polls closed at 6 p.m. Gray has been serving as the city’s vice mayor and defeated incumbent mayor Jim Newberry.
The paper said the campaign has been one of the most expensive in the city’s history and only the second time a sitting mayor has been defeated. The ballot in Lexington does not indicate party affiliation. According to results published by the Herald-Leader, Gray won with 53 percent of the vote, to Mayor Jim Newberry’s 46 percent. The Herald-Leader noted that Gray lost a bid for mayor in 2002, when his sexual orientation was not public. Gray came out before running successfully for an at-large seat on the Urban County Council.
In another southern state, North Carolina, openly gay candidate Marcus Brandon of High Point won his first-time run for state representative and, in doing so, becomes the state’s first openly gay legislator. According to the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund, Brandon also becomes only the fifth openly gay African-American elected to a state legislature anywhere in the country. As of 10:30 Tuesday night, three hours after polls closed, the state Board of Elections showed Brandon with 70 percent of the vote, compared to Republican Lonnie Wilson. The race was to represent North Carolina’s District 60, which encompasses Guilford County in the middle of the state. Brandon told the News-Record newspaper of Greensboro that his sexual orientation was not a secret but that “This is not something I wanted to take over my campaign.”
“Nobody in a year-and-a-half ever asked me about my sexuality,” Brandon said, in an Oct. 15 blog by an editorial writer in which the paper noted his race was one of the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund’s “Ten Races to Watch” this year.
U.S. Rep. Barney Frank won re-election to a 16th term as Massachusetts congressman from the 4th District. Frank won against an aggressive Republican challenger, Sean Bielat, who had a surge of out-of-state funding in the final days of the campaign to fuel a flood of campaign literature and robo-calls. While Frank’s re-election was considered predictable, the margin of victory represents a significant drop in support for Frank. Frank garnered only 54 percent of the vote Tuesday, dropping well below his previous lowest re-election take of 68 percent in 2008. The returns almost guarantee an even tougher re-match against Bielat in 2012.
U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.) won re-election to a seventh term with 62 percent of the vote, down just a few points from her previous re-election margin. U.S. Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.) won a second term with 56 percent of the vote.
Providence, Rhode Island’s openly gay mayor, David Cicilline, won his bid to represent the 1st Congressional District in the U.S. House. The win will make him the fourth openly gay member of the Congress. With all precincts counted, Cicilline had secured 50.6 percent of the vote, compared to Republican John Loughlin’s 44.5 percent, and 4.9 percent for two other candidates.
In Connecticut, openly gay health care advocate Kevin Lembo appears to have won his race for the state comptroller’s seat, taking 52 percent of the vote to Republican Jack Orchulli’s 44 percent. The win makes Lembo the only openly gay candidates to win a statewide race Tuesday night.
Laurie Jinkins has won her bid to the Washington State House, and becomes its first openly lesbian state lawmaker.
And Victoria Kolakowski appears to have won election as a judge on the Superior Court of Alameda County, California, becoming the first transgender trial court judge in the country.
But there were losses, too.
Two openly gay candidates lost their bids for seats in the U.S. House. Democrat Ed Potosnak, a teacher and businessman, lost his bid to unseat Republican incumbent Leonard Lance in New Jersey’s 7th Congressional district. Potosnak had been given very little chance of winning in his first run, but still pulled in 40 percent of the vote. And Steve Poughnet, the openly gay mayor of Palm Springs, Calif., garnered 40 percent in his first run for Congress against incumbent Republican Mary Bono Mack.
Two openly gay candidates for lieutenant governor lost as the head of their tickets fell to defeat. Steve Howard lost as the number two person on the Democratic ticket in Vermont. And Richard Tisei lost as part of the Republican ticket in Massachusetts, where incumbent Democratic governor Deval Patrick won re-election with 49 percent of the race, against Republican Charlie Baker’s 42 percent, and Independent Tim Cahill’s 8.
And openly gay Republican Ken Rosen appears to have lost his bid to represent Michigan’s 26th District in the state house. At 11:23 Tuesday night, early results showed Rosen with 44 percent of the vote, trailing Democrat Jim Townsend who has 53 percent.
© 2010 Keen News Service
Can anyone say Sodom and Gomorrah? Our nation is, unfortunately, headed in the same path…
Homosexuality is defined by sex. Period. Heterosexuality is defined by God.
Posts like the above two make me lose faith in humanity. Fortunately, the numbers of people like mario are dwindling rapidly.
I fear if the US continues to allow all the gay and lesbian activity to continue, the US will become the next Sodom and Gomorrah.
We should start the Heterosexual Victory Fund, but if we do, the ACLU will say it’s unconstitutional.
Ah – all the christian homophobes who think Jesus said “hate thy neighbor”, instead of what he did say- “love thy neighbor as thyself”.
Don’t worry, boys, your day will come in the ovens of hell. But at least you will have lots of company – your ministers of hatred, and the previous generations who hated blacks,
As a friend said to me about people like you – you just hate anyone who isn’t the same as yourself.
What would our Lord actually say about hypocrisy and judging others? Learn to love one another and stop preaching hate and slander. Look into your own hearts and tell me how pure they are.
John, that is not what the Lord would say. The Lord has spoken on judgment in Matthew Chapter 7. And the judgment our Lord speaks of is not judging one’s actions. We are called to judge others (i.e. their actions – just as you are doing) but not in a spirit of arrogance and forgetful of one’s own faults.
“This is not a prohibition against recognizing the faults of others, which would be hardly compatible with vv 5 and 6, but against passing judgment in a spirit of arrogance, forgetful of one’s own faults.” NAB, pg. 1263. Today the idea of judgment has been taken out of context, as are most teachings/passages of the Bible.
The Bible and Christian tradition makes clear that homosexual acts are “sins that cry out to heaven,” worse even than ‘ordinary’ sexual sins and punishable by (spiritual) death. But also in the “real world” homosex results in early death from horrible disease, much higher rates of suicide, drugs and booze. How is it loving to wish this “lifestyle” on anyone? It is the loving thing to do to pray for victims to escape from it. It can be done with a lot of prayer and support . It is not normal, nor is anyone born that way.
Homophobes…just shut the hell up! We’re sick of you!
To all the pro-gay posters on this site, I say, do not misquote Christian teachings. Jesus never said to love sin, only to love sinners as well as non sinners. For those of us that believe the Bible, and that is Christians as well as Jews and also any other people who have a faith in God, He created man and woman to be partners in marriage and love relationship, not 2 people of the same sex. If you don;t believe in God than don’t say He said things to meet your agenda.
For the record, Shumlin and Howard won in Vermont. So the article is incorrect in that aspect.
Homosexuality is disordered
As a Satanist, I say let the homos take over the world, at least then we’ll all burn in High Fashion.
There is no fucking lord, you stupid loony assholes. If you actually put that 10 pound paperweight on your neck to use, you might just realize this for yourself.
Love the sinner, hate the sin. Jesus taught us that too. And, we are worse than Sodom and Gomorrah ever was. Homosexuality behavior being just one of our many sins.
To Jake, Tony, and Steve,
I am truly sorry for you because I sense you feel offended. But homosexuality is just plain wrong, abnormal, and immoral. You attack by calling us homophobes but we are not that. We are simply saying that your actions are wrong; nobody hates you, I promise. Jesus loves the sinners but hates the sin and homosexuality is a sin. Through prayer, you can be healed of the atrocity. We cannot shut up because we have to speak out against the direction this sick world is going in–worse than Sodom and Gomorrah now. I am a sinner, too, but my sins are of a different nature. Please know I am sorry you are hurt but please reconsider turning to God for help with living the way you live or you will never achieve peace. . .
Poor, poor angry, vocabulary-limited Matt. . .of course God exists. . .we will pray for you. . .
I have a bad feeling about this country. Sodom and Gomorrah were smaller than this country, and they were destroyed because of their sin. The poor politicians, I hope they change, we need to pray for them.
I see that the ones who are pro homosexuality think that St. Paul will be found in Hell too, —Geesh
Finally…………..Why do we need to know what your sexual preference is, really?
For the life of me, I will never understand how it serves “gay” people to “take one for the team” and ignore/suppress their victimhood in being molested unless there is money attached.(ie. clergy did it). Everything about “gay” people is sad. Nobody hates you…except maybe some drunk or high bullies trying to get back at you for not paying your drug debts.(Clearly only applies to those on drugs, sillies). Why do you try to make what happened to you a consensual relationship when what it was, was a child being used by a predator. Yes, it may have felt “good” but that doesn’t mean you weren’t used as a receptacle. Get some help for the initial trauma…then you won’t suffer so with paranoid delusions that everyone hates you. You are much more valuable as a human being, so stop reducing yourself to a sex act. You are projecting what you feel on the rest of us-your anger, fear of being masculine and not measuring up. You know you are not “happy”. All you are doing is careening from one pleasure to the next. Pleasure is fleeting, and when that is gone, you will have nothing…hence why more “gay” kill themselves or perish early because of their poor decisions. There is a way out. Go find a therapist who can help you deal with what happened when you were a child, whether it be your molestation, your bad relationship with your father, a naughty uncle or neighbor…your rejection from peers. Good luck to you.
Don’t knock gayness unless you try it yourself. You might find it quite pleasurable. The upside is you can’t get anyone pregnant. Who wants to become or be stuck with a baby mama for next 18 or so years.
Prayer is the only answer for this evil.
prayer is the only answer for this evil
DAMN this is getting OLD!!!! I am a Christian and almost ALL the Christians and Jews I know see absolutely NOTHING wrong with gay folks. One can quote the Bible all they want ,and do….Do unto others As youd have them do unto you……one can use Scripture to demean women,minorities…..etc.etc.This is why GOD gave us a brain & a heart!! If youre gay,great! If youre crossgender,God bless! If youre straight,Go in Peace!! Love one another as God has loved you! Gays are born gay…. are the stupid born stupid or is that a choice???
So sorry Patrick, you are looking at God and the Christian faith through lens of untruth. Please one day you will meet the Eternal One, and the Bible speaks clearly that homasexual acts are wrong. Please find another church to find the Truth about God, His Son Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. Please your eternal soul is at stake. Once we leave this earthy live, and our Mission on earth is accomplished, we will by our actions, either merit Heaven or Hell. It really is a simple as that. Because our first parents sinned, they forfited the paradise that we all would have had, if they had not sinned. If God kicked them out of Paradise, for not being obedient, what do you think He will do to us, if we don’t repent when we sin. The Bible is so clear on this issue, please don’t make lite of it, because of some “lukewarm christians” who want to say that “your ok. I’m ok, and God just loves everyone! No, God does Love everyone, but God does not Love sin. Think about it. Do you think that Jesus died on the cross, because he thought it was a fun thing to do? He died for our sins, an extremly horriable death. All he askes of us is to be obedient, to the Gospel, that he preached. Heaven can only be given to those who repent of their sins. Eternity is a long time!! Our Lady when she appeared at Fatima, said souls fall like snowflakes in to hell, because of the sins of the flesh. God knows of our weakenesses, all he askes of us is repentness, and just think He gives us Paradise, for eternity! Please Please don’t let Satan deceive you~ for he roams the world looking for souls, to steal from Jesus. Eternity, thats our gift, don’t lose it. Jerro
Again I ask. Why do we need to know what your sexual preference is?
https://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/august2004/100804culturalcollapse.htm
https://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/776356/posts
Kinsey sexually tortured infants and children on film…what a guy! And you embrace this trash as a hero. Sad.
Why won’t one of you tell me why it is the world needs to know your sexual oreference ( this question is directed to the homosexuals.) You must have a reason for spending tons of money pushing your lifestye. I will guess that only you folks are the only positivly interested people of all your HORN BLOWING. which sounds like so much hetrophobia; and if you want to know, the rest of the world is getting really tired of it. Kick back and just be.
I don’t believe I am trying to push my lifestyle on anybody. I always try to make sure people would be comfortable before introducing my boyfriend, or telling them about anything that could point towards my homosexuality. I also would like to address the fact that I did not choose to be homosexual, and that me making that decision would be just silly. Who in this world wants the seclusion that it so often brings, especially in conservative communities such as the one I live in? I have spoken to my mother in the past, and she says that even in her pregnancy she knew I would be very different from my brother, because her pregnancy with me felt different to her. She swears next to God that I was born this way, and this is part of the Lord’s plan for me. I will pray for those of you who cannot accept that God did create me this way.
I would also like to point out the long list of animals found in nature that are shown to have homosexual relationships:Mammals:African Elephant; Brown Bear; Brown Rat; Buffalo; African Lion; Caribou; Cat (domestic); CheetahCommon Dolphin; Orca; Common Marmoset; Common Raccoon; Dog (domestic); European BisonBirds:Chicken (Domestic); Common Gull; Emu; Emperor Penguin; SeagullFish:Amazon molly; Blackstripe topminnow; Bluegill Sunfish; Char; Grayling; European Bitterling; Green swordtail; Guiana leaffish; Houting Whitefish; Jewel Fish; Least Darter (Microperca punctulata); Mouthbreeding Fish sp.; Salmon sp.; Southern platyfish; Ten-spined stickleback; Three-spined sticklebackReptiles:
Anole sp.; Bearded Dragon; Broad-headed Skink; Checkered Whiptail Lizard; Chihuahuan Spotted Whiptail Lizard; Common Ameiva; Common Garter Snake; Cuban Green Anole; Desert Grassland Whiptail Lizard; Desert Tortoise; Fence Lizard; Five-lined Skink; Gopher (Pine) Snake; Green AnoleInagua Curlytail Lizard; Jamaican Giant Anole; Laredo Striped Whiptail Lizard; Largehead Anole; Mourning Gecko; Plateau Striped Whiptail Lizard; Red Diamond Rattlesnake; Red-tailed Skink; Side-blotched Lizard; Speckled Rattlesnake; Water Moccasin; Western rattlesnake (Crotalus viridis); Western Banded Gecko; Whiptail Lizard spp.; Wood TurtleThis list does not include the large number of insects that are found to create homosexual relationships. Now take this in: are all of them making the decision to be homosexual, or did our Father in heaven make them like that as part of nature’s way?
Graeme, human beings are not animals. Human beings were created by God to be more than animals. Consequently, you cannot use as an example in your argument animals.
Graeme, Daniel is right. You are not an animal.
The behavior we see in animals cannot be applied to humans, nor is it reasonable to project our feeling unto them. For example, a male dog may indeed try to mount another male dog. While you see it as a dog taking a look at his buddy and lusting/sex thing -(because you have reduced yourself to a sex act), the truth is that it is not about that dog lusting and having desire sexually at all. It is about instinctual dominance.
Chances are your mother stretches to find reasons to help validate your lifestyle of homo-sex. It is easier to believe God made you like that, then to look at the environment she permitted you to live in. Distant, absent or harsh, non physically demonstrative Dad…overbearing, dominating mother in some instances, peer cruelty, and/or a molestation experience.
I am sorry for you. God didn’t make you gay.
.
My father is a wonderful man that has only been the best example for me to follow as I continue to grow. My mother Gives me plenty of distance and trusts me to be a good christian. My friends and classmates have always treated me as they did every other student in my school career, and I have never been abused sexually. I have prayed to our Father about it many times, and I continue to know that he loves me, and made me as I am. God made me who I am, and he has a plan for me as he does for everyone else on Earth. I am sorry for you, and I will be praying that God might open your heart, mind and soul. Thank you for trying to express your concern.
Wow, I feel sorry for those of you who have nothing better to do with your life than judge others and what they choose to do with THEIR lives. One of the most important things in life is being succesful at accomplishing your goals and setting out to be a productive citizen of our world. Overwhelmingly, gay/lesbian human beings are extremely successful and productive in life and I am sure they don’t sit around on their lazy asses criticizing what other people choose to do with their lives…… If their were two choices in this life…one, being conservative, judgemental, condeming losers like many of the people commenting on here or two, a gay/lesbian successful, productive citizen of this world….I’d rather be homosexual. Its not about sexuality….. its about what kind of person you are….and all of you who use your christian upbringing and beliefs as basis for your arguements are hippocrites…..Who the hell are you to judge? It’s easy for you to condemn when you are not the minority group in this situation….I bet if the shoe was on the other foot, you would be fighting for your right to make you life what you want out of it….Just like everyone else gets to.
Beth, what Christians are doing is not, as you claim, “judging”. No one knows where
anyone will go when they die, which is true judging. What IS being done, is discernment.
God has spoken through His Divine Word, in the Holy Tradition and the Holy Bible, about
what He created us to be. We know what He thinks about homosexuality.
To be a liberal, is to accept all other forms of rebellion against God due to one’s
own predilection for a certain sin. Hence, one finds those clamoring for the death
of the unborn, defenders of all sorts of sins that used to be recognized for what it is.
Sin is destructive and plays out in our lives as a temporal reminder that we are
“out of bounds”of what God intended us to be.
God loves all of us children but He doesn’t overlook our sin. If no one cares enough to
intervene, how would anyone heal?
Your worst enemy isn’t the Christians…it is your failed conscience.
Graeme, I would be dishonest, if I didn’t just come out and admit my skeptism about your past.
All of the homosexuals I know on a personal basis have one thing in common: molestation.
All of them, which is only eight, have one or more irregulaities I listed in an earlier post.
The majority, six, were male, who tended to deny molestation and somehow managed
to reframe the early sexual experiences as consenual although it took place with an adult,
when they were still children. I hope you are not “taking one for the team”.
Thanks for yours prayers, I will gladly accept them and I offer you mine as well.