E. Denise Simmons, of Cambridge, Mass., in 2008 became the nation’s first black out lesbian mayor (and succeeded Kenneth Reeves, the nation’s first black out gay mayor), a position that leads the City Council. (She was elected mayor by fellow counselors, not voters). But now she’s on to greater ambitions, this week announcing her run for the State Senate seat opened up by Anthony D. Galluccio, who’s serving a year in prison after a hit-and-run. So yeah, that’s sort of neat — particularly if Simmons’ three decades of public service keeps going beyond Massachusetts’ politics. [Bay Windows]
dontblamemeivotedforhillary
At this stage, I was hoping she would run for President. All you need is to be a community organizer or Miss Alaska! We need an Out President of the United States to lead a Human Rights campaign against the genocide and torture of lgbts in the world and find a cure for AIDS. Human Rights Watch seem to be light on their toes when it comes to our Civil Liberties and Human Rights…and the AIDS pandemic.
Cam
I really hope that she can get into the national govt. The U.S. Senate tries to pretend to have all that phony civility…well it would really be put to the test knowing that if they insulted gays that they would be directly attacking another Senator.
delurker
Mass, for all its supposed liberalism, is still a kind of boys club. They have elected only a few women to statewide office and their congressional delegation is made of 9 men and 1 woman. She has an uphill climb if she has greater statewide aspirations, lesbian or not.