Word: gayness
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Houston voters made history in December, electing the first openly gay mayor of a major U.S. city. Annise Parker, 53, takes the oath of office on Jan. 1 to lead the nation's fourth largest metropolis, with some 2.2 million residents. Currently Houston's city controller, Parker has been open about her sexuality throughout her political career and has three adopted children with her longtime partner, Kathy Hubbard. "Tonight the voters of Houston have opened the doors to history," the Democrat said after winning the city's Dec. 12 runoff election. "But now, from this moment, let us join...
...seat on the Houston City Council in 1997 on her third try, becoming Houston's first openly gay elected official. Won her bid to be city controller - the No. 2 elected position - in 2003, and ran unopposed for re-election in 2005 and 2007. (Read "What's All That Secession Ruckus in Texas...
...sexual orientation did not emerge as a campaign issue before the Nov. 3 mayoral election among four candidates. But it did prompt attacks before the runoff against Gene Locke, a former city attorney. A group of African-American pastors criticized her supposed "gay agenda," and a conservative activist distributed flyers featuring her and her partner and asking, "Is this the image Houston wants to portray?" But the attacks did not find traction; a Houston Chronicle/Zogby poll found that Parker's sexuality mattered to just 18% of likely voters...
...What They're Opening in China: For a country that censors reports on the scope of its HIV/AIDS crisis and until 2001 deemed homosexuality a mental illness, China's announcement on World AIDS Day that it would open its first state-sanctioned gay bar came as a shock--especially after officials divulged that $18,000 in public funds would be used to create a lounge that would offer free condoms and lectures on safe sex. The bar in Yunnan province--a region that contains nearly a quarter of China's reported HIV and AIDS cases--was set to open...
...pregnant illegal immigrants who cross the border to win citizenship for their newborns. Then a third woman piped in, rather timidly, asking, "How can we keep religious radicals out of our party? I think that's why they've lost a lot of votes, with the opposition of gay inclusion or opposing women's choice...