Jared Polis: Colorado. Tammy Baldwin: Wisconsin. Barney Frank: Massachusetts. (*Cough* Barack Obama *Cough*: Illinois.) If America’s most well-known openly gay elected officials (and our “allies”) all hail from above the Mason-Dixon line, how is it that LGBT political power is raising so fast in the … South?
Houston’s election of Annise Parker as mayor is just the most recent example, according to an analysis by the Southern Political Report:
In 2001, Southern Political Report produced a report, “Diversity in Dixie,” which looked at the growing influence of minorities in Southern politics. At that time, there were 31 openly gay men and women holding elective office in five Southern states. Today, only eight years later, there are 79 — about two-and-a-half times as many. And they are present in 12 Southern states, everyone but — surprise! — Mississippi.
Openly gay politicians have won seats in the legislatures in Alabama (state Rep. Patricia Todd), Arkansas (state Rep. Kathy Webb), Georgia (state Rep. Karla Drenner), North Carolina (state Sen. Julia Boseman), Oklahoma (state Rep. Al McAffrey), and Virginia (state Rep. Adam Ebbin). Several prominent gay lawmakers have retired from Southern legislatures, including former state Rep. Glen Maxey in Texas, and former state Sen. Ernesto Scorsone in Kentucky. All are Democrats and represent urban areas, where gay voters often make up a significant portion of the electorate.
Gay political power has been especially evident in Southern city governments. While Parker’s election in Houston is certainly the most noteworthy example — nationally, not just in the South — gays have made their presence felt in other Southern urban centers as well. Last month, the Broward County Commission elected Ken Keechl as mayor. And in Atlanta, Cathy Woolard was elected president of the Atlanta City Council in 2002, making her at the time one of the highest ranking openly gay officeholders in the nation.
Not that the South is, yet, the most friendly environment to gay politicos:
Nationwide, some 700 gay men and women hold elective office; the South, with about 35 percent of the US population, accounts for only about 11 percent of them. Moreover, anti-gay laws — such as bans on same-sex adoptions and restrictions on what may be taught about homosexuality in schools — have often passed legislatures and city and county councils in the South. And some politicians still feel free to criticize the gay minority. Just last week, US Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC), an increasingly influential Republican conservative, described gays as “socially destructive” in a television interview.
(Note: Yes, there’s some squabbling over whether the M-D ran through Illinois.)
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Mike in Asheville, nee "in Brooklyn"
My hubby and I recently needed to move to North Carolina. I Googled “Gay friendly North Carolina” and many hits showed up about Asheville.
Get outside of Asheville, and wow. Before the South “rises” as a center for LGBT rights, I think several years of Viagra will be necessary first.
L.Single
Much of Colorado was open to slavery and geographically most of it lies below the Mason-Dixon line. Geography FAIL.
Why is there an increase in out southern politicians? Because the numbers have nowhere to go but up. The state you quote: “[T]he South, with about 35 percent of the US population, accounts for only about 11 percent of [lesbian and gay elected officials].”
tavdy79
Illinois didn’t exist (either as a state or as a territory) until Feburary 1809, over 40 years after the Mason-Dixon line was surveyed.
Josh NYC
Religion still owns the South.
Lady Ga-Gasp
The South is of course very interesting with respect to things LGBT for the same reason its interesting on every other cultural level. Its bipolar and always has been. Best & the worst to be found there, and when a society exists in a high contrast context such as that, all sort of interesting things happen.
In the town I grew up in, the couple that held the annual debutante ball and who lived in one of the grandest old houses was quietly known to everyone as consisting of two people who met as women at an exclusive girls school, fell in love, one of them had a sex change (in the 1950’s!) and they married and carried on for decades as man and wife, and no one said much about it.
The reason why the south produces/inspires so many great writers (Eudora Welty, Flannery O’Connor, Ellen Glasgow, Carson McCullers, Reynolds Price, James Dickey, William Price Fox, Davis Grubb, Walker Percy, Harper Lee, John Kennedy Toole, Tennessee Williams, Truman Capote and on and on…) is because it has an actual culture, and with everyone on top of everyone else and in everyone else’s business (southern gossip is an art form) the gay aspect of life has always been there, out in the open and in the shadows at the same time. Like I said, bipolar.
Some people lament the fading of the old southern gay sub culture (captured best in some respects by the novel/film “Midnight in the Garden of Good & Evil.”) while others believe the south will never truly lead on gay rights for the very reason that its foundation is too murky and mysterious to ever flower outside of its own hothouse.
Bruno
I think the explanation is pretty simple: the South is traditionally slow to progress on equality issues. That explains why we’re seeing a mini “boom” of out politicians there, but it still hasn’t caught up to the rest of the country.
scottyscott
I don’t understand the obama reference. Is that an insinuation that he’s gay?
Quesa
Those listed as examples are very local politicians in liberal city enclaves. Most of the South is rural, and as such, religious and conservative.
Evan
Yeah, the Obama reference is bizarre.
David S.
It’s important that we continue to make monolithic generalizations over wide swaths of geography. Otherwise, how will we understand our world?
Keith Kimmel
Brittany Novotny will add to that count on Super Tuesday. Bye, bye Sally Kern!
Kyle R.
Question. Why is Kansas labeled as Nebraska on this map?
Attmay
@4 Josh:
Correction: Christianity still owns the South.
hephaestion
Don’t forget: David Sedaris, Clay Aiken, Alfred Uhry, Alan Ball, Lily Tomlin, Ellen DeGeneres, Jane Wagner and many more talented gay folk are Southerners.
Josh NYC
The more educated a State is, the less religious that State is.
When people learn, they let go of fairy tales and superstitions.