Biggest city in Texas elects openly gay mayor!

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

From the Houston Chronicle:

With 89 percent of precincts counted, Parker holds a lead of nearly 8,000 voters, a divide that former City Attorney Gene Locke cannot make up with the relatively small pool of voters expected to be counted in the remainder of the night.

Parker's election-day advantage has reached nearly 11 points.

With 652 of 738 precincts reporting in Harris County and 100 percent in Fort Bend County (slightly less than half of the total), Parker leads former City Attorney Gene Locke by about three points with 52.7 percent to his 47.3 percent. About 7,000 votes separate them out of more than 145,000.

She won despite attempts by bigots to turn her homosexuality into a campaign issue:

Longtime anti-gay activist Dave Wilson, who once led a successful effort to amend the city charter to deny benefits to the partners of gay and lesbian city employees, said he has sent out 35,000 fliers opposing the mayoral candidacy of Annise Parker in part because of her sexual orientation.

The front of the flier has a 2004 photo of Parker being sworn into office as city controller while her partner, Kathy Hubbard, looks on, accompanied by the headline: “Is this the image Houston wants to portray?”

...

“There's a cultural war going on in our society today,” Wilson said. “I feel that homosexual behavior is an affront to the family values of one man-one woman, and homosexual behavior, to any society that's embraced it, has led to the extinction of that society.”

[peejay 327]

The city of Houston is not in Texas. It is the Peoples Republic of Houston. There is the left coast and the right coasts of the USA. The Peoples Republic of Houston is on the third coast. That 'splains it all.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

The city of Houston is not in Texas. It is the Peoples Republic of Houston. There is the left coast and the right coasts of the USA. The Peoples Republic of Houston is on the third coast. That 'splains it all.

[peejay 327]

The city of Houston is not in Texas. It is the Peoples Republic of Houston. There is the left coast and the right coasts of the USA. The Peoples Republic of Houston is on the third coast. That 'splains it all.

Is that guy pointing the way to the Peoples Republic of Houston?

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

The city of Houston is not in Texas. It is the Peoples Republic of Houston. There is the left coast and the right coasts of the USA. The Peoples Republic of Houston is on the third coast. That 'splains it all.

Is that guy pointing the way to the Peoples Republic of Houston?

[Chica Yeyé 41]

Is she qualified?

Can she do the job?

Did she win the election fair and square?

If both above are correct, whomever she wants to sleep with is no one else's biz.

If neither are correct, whomever she wants to sleep with is no still one else's biz.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Is she qualified?

Can she do the job?

Did she win the election fair and square?

If both above are correct, whomever she wants to sleep with is no one else's biz.

If neither are correct, whomever she wants to sleep with is no still one else's biz.

The right-wing nutjobs disagree.

[Chica Yeyé 41]

I need to amend my comment: If she has a lesbianic spikey hair do, she should immediately be removed from Office. that is just wrong.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

I need to amend my comment: If she has a lesbianic spikey hair do, she should immediately be removed from Office. that is just wrong.

You're just pissed she won't give you any.

Edited December 13, 2009 by w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r

[Chica Yeyé 41]

I need to amend my comment: If she has a lesbianic spikey hair do, she should immediately be removed from Office. that is just wrong.

You're just pissed she won't give you any.

Angelina Jolie. Now, she can make me switch teams in heartbeat.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

I need to amend my comment: If she has a lesbianic spikey hair do, she should immediately be removed from Office. that is just wrong.

You're just pissed she won't give you any.

Angelina Jolie. Now, she can make me switch teams in heartbeat.

You. Make. Me. Sick.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

The city of Houston is not in Texas. It is the Peoples Republic of Houston. There is the left coast and the right coasts of the USA. The Peoples Republic of Houston is on the third coast. That 'splains it all.

peejay, what kind of rational reasoning do you have for opposing someone who is gay from holding public office?

[TBoneTX 45,305]

Is she qualified? Can she do the job?

On paper (very smart, has been around city government for many years). One never knows until someone gets into the job "in the field."

Did she win the election fair and square?

Absolutely (amidst the usual appallingly low turnout).

The two runoff candidates were astonishingly unexciting. The winner had a stronger volunteer base; the loser needed approximately 30% of the white vote in order to have a chance.

Regarding the winner, someone who sat within feet of her on the City Council for 6 years, and who therefore appears qualified to make observations, said, when questioned, that the winner is most definitely a "political hack" who will say anything, depending on the situation. (No one is certain that the loser would have been much better, honestly.)

I have no dog in the fight, because I live in a 'burb and don't vote in Houston city elections. However, I can and will say that the Houston Chronicle (with the exception of the funny-pages) is the newspaper that Houston wraps fish in, or should.*

*When the other morning newspaper, the Houston Post, was shut down suddenly in 1993, I lost count of the people whom I overheard saying "the wrong paper got closed down."

[TBoneTX 45,305]

spikey hair do

This is a reminder of a funny joke:

A punk-rock type, fully begarbed in body art and with a multicolored Mohawk, sat on a bus-stop bench next to a middle-aged man. The punk, noticing the man casting curious glances toward him, belligerently said, "You got a problem with me?" The man said, "No, but when I was about your age, I got drunk one night and had sex with a parrot, and I was simply wondering if you were my son."

[Sofiyya 1,687]

So, Houston has bragging rights to an openly gay mayor. This is what makes people happy these days?