San Francisco may get its first gay mayor

In more progressive cities like Houston, having a lesbian mayor is old hat. The issue hardly arose in Annise Parker’s nine elections — three for city council, three for city comptroller and three for mayor — except among the city’s extremists.
Other progressive cities in Texas have had gay mayors as well, like Kemp, just south of Kaufman along Cedar Creek Lake. And liberal Collin County has two recently out trans officials.
But in conservative San Francisco, electing a gay mayor would be a big step. LGBT candidates have run for the office before, but now state Sen. Mark Leno has thrown his hat in the ring. Leno was also the first openly gay man in the California Assembly and California Senate.
Although San Francisco has had gay supervisors — that city’s equivalent of council members — more progressive cities like Dallas have had more.
San Francisco, however, can take credit for electing Harvey Milk to its Board of Supervisors, becoming one of the first out elected officials in the U.S. Milk, however, only moved to San Francisco after living in Dallas’ Oak Lawn neighborhood.
Leno is the first candidate to announce he’d run for mayor of San Francisco. The election takes place in 2019.