Gay Politicians? No Big Deal

LC NY Bureau Chief Doug pointed out this article in Politico about gay politicians going mainstream.  Since 2008, we have gone from candidates Obama and Clinton shying away from endorsing marriage equality to seeing our marriages celebrated and endorsed by virtually the entire Democratic Party.  We now have our first openly gay United States Senator and six openly gay members of Congress.  Across the country, increasing number of gay politicians are being elected including Oregon House Speaker Tina Kotek.  The best part is, for most if not all of these candidates, sexual orientation simply isn't an issue anymore.  For example, in Dallas County, Lupe Valdez just cruised to an easy reelection to a third term as Sheriff and I wasn't aware of a peep of homophobia from her opponent.  She's never pretended to be straight and in her first campaign, there was an attempt to her honesty against her, but it went nowhere.  In Houston, Annise Parker has been a popular mayor and is expected to win reelection in the fall.  Even in Texas, if you do a good job, it just doesn't matter anymore if you're gay or straight.  At least in the big cities.