Jim Neal's Senatorial dreams were dashed last week when he lost to fellow Democrat Kay Hagan.

The road to Washington wasn't the most level, especially considering Neal's relative obscurity and the fact that Hagan won the support of party leaders, who apparently worried Neal couldn't take on Republican Elizabeth Dole.

While some would be sore about their loss, Neal's taking it all in stride. He hasn't yet decided what the future holds, but this homo-politicos sure of one thing: he made - and will continue to make - an impact.

Neal and our editor chatted yesterday about the candidate's loss, gay group Human Rights Campaign's non-endorsement and why this year will change America's electoral process forever.

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Yesterday's elections weren't a total loss for gay politicians.

Sure, former business man Jim Neal lost his bid for North Carolina's Senate, but Virginia-based political Lawrence Webb made a big mark: he's now the state's first black and gay elected official.

Totally radical!

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It's probably a gloomy morning for homo-politico Jim Neal.

The North Carolina Democrat lost his Senatorial bid to rival Kay Hagan last night, sixty-to-eighteen percent.

It's not surprising that voters would prefer Hagan, who has been a sitting Senator for five-years. What does shock us a bit is that people backed the candidate who originally didn't want to run.

You may recall that Chuck Schumer and other party asked Hagan to run, fearing that Neal couldn't compete with Republican candidate Elizabeth Dole.

Regardless, Hagan's now the district's Senatorial nominee and knows she needs to unify potential voters…

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It's a big day for homo-politico Jim Neal, who's running for the Democratic senatorial seat in North Carolina.

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North Carolina's Jim Neal may be new to the political arena, but he's making great headway in his Congressional campaign.

A recently released poll indicates that the gay business man has tied with his rival, Senator Kay Hagan, who also wants to run on the Democratic ticket.

Hoping to keep up the momentum, Neal issued this call to action: asking supporters to donate ten bones to the campaign, enlist ten friends and bring ten people to the polls on election day.

We sense a common theme…

Kay Hagan is one clever lady!

The North Carolina congressional candidate, who's running against homo-politico Jim Neal for the Democratic nomination, recently revamped her website, which apparently needed some ruby slippers. She's obviously using the subtle Oz reference to woo the lavender vote. We gays simply can't resist Dorothy. (Actually, by a stroke of queer coincidence, we're listening to The Wiz soundtrack right now. Be a lion!)

In related news, Hagan and Neal will have a live debate this Friday. Neal's supporters, meanwhile, are looking for people who want to host Jim Neal house parties. They're doing a massive fundraising push on April 6th, one month ahead of the election. The candidate will also get on the horn to spread his good word. Click here for more information.

He's baaack!

Contentious filmmaker Bruce LaBruce last came at us with The Raspberry Reich, which focused on gay "terrorists". Now, LaBruce turns his iconic eye to a seemingly unrealistic, and quite timely, topic: zombies.

Otto; Or, Up With Dead People revolves around the titular, undead Otto (Jey Crisfar), who's trying to find his place in a world where zombies have become common place. While humanity has learned to cope with invasive flesh-eaters, they're none-too-happy to learn that the latest wave's a bit lavender.

Endangered, confused and fighting his zombie urges, Otto falls in with a Medea, who's making a flick about revolutionary gay zombies fighting back against roving anti-gay militias. The movie, which premiered earlier this year at Sundance, represents a huge step in LaBruce career, which started with Queercore fanzines and a little movie called No Skin Off My Ass.

Unlike some independent filmmakers, LaBruce's career has only grown in recent years, which affords him higher budgets and more intricate aesthetics - designer Rick Owens did all the costuming for Otto, which artist Terence Koh co-produced. Despite his success, LaBruce stays true to his message: assimilation sucks. The director widens his directive in this offering, however, taking on a broader consumerism and corporation-saturated society.

Our editor spoke with LaBruce this weekend and the gents hit the obvious talking points - conformity, the devolution of gay activism - but also get deep into some other issues, like Internet-based bitchey, where LaBruce stands on bareback porn and how the Canadian government may soon start hampering films like Otto.

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North Carolinian Jim Neal headed north to New York last night for a DL21C-sponsored event. The openly gay Senatorial candidate greeted well wishers and do-gooders at a lovely little joint called Retreat, which we enjoyed for all the hard wood.

We snapped some shots of the happenings. Neal's speech covered much of what he told us in part one and part two of our exclusive interview. Our editor did raised two questions, one privately and one publicly. The first question: "What do you think about John Edwards dropping out of the race?" Neal said he was sorry to see Edwards go, particularly because the former Senator used his platform to highlight the ravages of poverty. Belonsky said that was true, but added that perhaps the White House wouldn't be the most effective place for him. Edwards should, instead, start a non-profit a la Bill Clinton and/or Al Gore.

The next question, which came after Neal's speech, concerned the candidate's ideas on American inclusion. Neal told the audience that "American democracy doesn't belong to the politicians, but to the people". All of these people live in America, said Neal, and should thus have an equal say in policy matters - or at least be brought to the table.

Belonsky asked Neal how he would approach extremist, fundamentalist groups such as the KKK and the Westboro Baptist Church. Neal replied that such "fringe" groups are motivated by emotion-based logic, rather than reason and, thus, aren't prepared to fight fair. He also said that the secular and spiritual must remain distinct, but later referred to "the man upstairs," a monotheistic god. It's queer, isn't it, that so many politicians insist on dividing religion and the state - which is right, rather than Right - yet favor the Western concept of the G-man. Just a thought.

Anyway, click the thumbnails for the action. We've included cute little captions. Well, we think they're cute.

Senatorial candidate and Queerty feature subject Jim Neal flew into New York to get down with the big apple's big homosexuals. Head on over to Retreat (37 W. 17th St.) around 6pm and schmooze with Neal, his pals, us and other queer folk.

Yesterday we introduced you to gay Senatorial candidate Jim Neal, pictured above with one of his two sons.

The conversation continues today with our editor getting into the nitty-gritty of Neal's current campaign.

Andrew Belonsky: What made you stop volunteering for or fundraising for campaigns, as you did for Kerry, and actually launch your own?

Jim Neal: Well, I've always wanted to do it. I was a little kid and wanted to be president. I don't want to be president right now, but I have always contemplated running for federal office. I think there were two things that prevented me from moving on it. One was that when I did come out in my early-30's, I thought, "Okay, that's it. A gay person can't run for public office. It's off the table". The times changed and that was no longer necessarily the prevailing wisdom, but I had custody of my two children. I was a single parent raising two young children and they came first. Their needs came first. That was the most difficult job I've ever had in my life, but it was also extraordinarily rewarding. Raising two kids with two parents is a challenge, much less one, because you have to be both dad and mom. You've got to have the maternal side and the more stereotypical father role. I think I yielded more to the maternal because I felt like my kids needed that, because they didn't have it. Even before I declared my candidacy, I spoke with both my children - my boys, they're not children anymore - and told them what it would entail, made it clear that I was the one running for office, they could be as involved or not be as involved as they wanted to be. They both said, "Go for it," but my older son threw in the caveat, "Dad, please don't ever forget the little guy."

AB: Your sexuality is not the cornerstone of your campaign, but I want to talk a little about Chuck Schumer and how things went down with your campaign announcement and what could be perceived as the cold shoulder from your Democratic peers. Do you think that reaction tacitly stressed your sexuality?

JN: Not necessarily. There was a good deal of concern - not necessarily expressed, but certainly there were folks who were part of the status quo political system that found my candidacy threatening. They felt that a gay person on the ballot would draw out social conservatives to vote against me and therefore to vote for the other candidate on the ballot. My view of that - I didn't foresee that. It didn't even cross my mind. Chalk it up to political naivete, but it didn't cross my mind because I think it's silly. It's analogous to the so-called conventional wisdom that said a black person could never be elected or a woman, much less a Roman Catholic to the White House. They were wrong then and they are wrong now.

North Carolina native Jim Neal just may be the most controversial queer candidate this political season. The 51-year old entered the race to rival Republican Elizabeth Dole. One would expect resounding praise for a man with such balls - Bob excluded - but Neal's senatorial candidacy became a scandalous affair.

Most people believed that Brad Miller would run as the Democratic candidate, but the Congressman ended up eschewing the race. Democratic Senate Campaign Committee chair Chuck Schumer attempted to persuade two other candidates - Sen. Kay Hagan and state Rep. Grier Martin - but both refused. Thus, Neal entered the raise, without Schumer's blessing. In fact, it's been widely reported that Schumer initially ignored Neal's calls, leading many to believe Schumer had little faith in a gay candidate.

Neal recently gave our editor some of his time to discuss the Schumer scandal. But, before we get into the present day political debates, we're going to take a trip back to see how former finance executive Jim Neal became a Democratic Senatorial candidate.

Jim Neal hopes to beat Republican Elizabeth Dole in North Carolina's Senatorial election.

One would think the Democratic party would support such an endeavor, but Senatorial Committee leader Chuck Schumer and his peers turned a blind eye to Neal's candidacy. They even started recruiting other potential politicos, but no one took the bait. Now Neal and his colleagues in the part have reached a bit of a truce.

Neal met with DSCC officials to discuss his campaign.

“We have reached an understanding with them … they’re going to leave us alone in the primary, that they’re going to share the same information with us that they share with any other candidate and that … nobody associated with DSCC will ever make the statement that a gay person can’t win in North Carolina,” he said. “And they have assured us that if they change their mind, they’ll let us know.”

DSCC spokesperson Matt Miller said his organization was never hostile to Neal’s candidacy and that DSCC does not endorse candidates until the Democratic nominee has been selected.

The Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, which backs gay politicians, has yet to endorse Neal's campaign.