Ian Campbell, an openly gay man, has just become Britain's youngest mayor. In their report of his achievement, Edge Miami offers some useful background information on the rise of gay mayors in other cities around the world (but with a distinct US bias):
Openly gay and lesbian political leaders have become more commonplace in recent years. The mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoë, came out in 1998--but that didn’t stop him from being elected to the office of mayor in 2001. That same year, Klaus Wowereit, the openly gay mayor of Berlin, assumed office.
Last fall, Annise Parker made headlines as the first openly lesbian mayor of Houston, Texas. Parker joined the ranks of openly gay American mayors, including Sam Adams, the mayor of Portland, Oregon, Mark Kleinschmidt of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and David Cicilline, the openly gay mayor of Providence, Rhode Island.
Cambridge, Massachusetts, was an early leader in having a gay mayor, with the 1993 election of Kenneth Reeves, who went on to serve three terms. Earlier this month, Joe Mosca also joined those ranks upon being elected mayor of Sierra Madre, California; in March, openly gay Craig Lowe won the mayor’s office in Gainesville, Florida, despite repeated anti-gay leafleting campaigns that targeted him with various homophobic smears.
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