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Annise Parker, the openly gay candidate for mayor of Houston, spoke with CNN on Monday and said that her being gay is “just a piece of the package.”
 
Parker, who could become a gay mayor of the fourth largest city in the United States, downplayed the impact of her sexual orientation on her political career in an interview with The Situation Room.

“I have always stood up for the fact that I am gay,” she said, “and it’s part of the resume that I bring to the table, but it’s just a piece of the package.”

Parker, currently comptroller of Houston, faces a tight three-way contest on Tuesday. The race will likely go to a run-off election in December.

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A Democratic state house primary in Chicago this February will find an openly gay man and a lesbian candidate competing against each other, but neither one makes sexual orientation a selling point.

The primary in the northwest side’s 40th district will be historic, according to local NBC news blogger Matt Bartosik.

”Columbia College instructor Joe Laiacona — an openly gay man — has collected enough signatures to get on the ballot to challenge incumbent State Rep. Deb Mell — the first openly gay woman to serve in the Illinois General Assembly,” Bartosik writes. “If both keep their hats in the ring, the race will be the first of its kind at this level of politics in Illinois.”

However, Bartosik finds it unacceptable that neither candidate mentions sexual orientation in his or her online campaign bio.

The Associated Press interviews Jenny Durkan, the first openly gay person to serve as a U.S. attorney. Durkan, who serves in Seattle and was confirmed by the Senate last month, spoke about her historic appointment.

“In this region I don’t think it’s very remarkable that you have someone who is gay in a position of authority, because it’s woven throughout our culture and has been,” Durkan, 51, told the AP. “In other parts of the country it might be, but I think a generation from now it will be a footnote.”

Argentina could become the first country in Latin America to legalize gay marriage, pending the outcome of a debate now underway in the congress. The capital city of Buenos Aires was the first in the region to legalize civil unions for same-sex couples in 2002.

Activists and their congressional supporters would need to overcome the powerful influence of the Roman Catholic Church in order to pass their proposals, according to the Associated Press. 

Read more on this story at the Advocate.

At a White House reception commemorating the enactment of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, President Barack Obama told about 300 civil rights leaders that the day was a milestone toward the fair treatment of all Americans.
 
“As a nation we’ve come far on the journey towards a more perfect union. And today, we’ve taken another step forward,” Obama said. “This is the culmination of a struggle that has lasted more than a decade. Time and again, we faced opposition. Time and again, the measure was defeated or delayed. Time and again we’ve been reminded of the difficulty of building a nation in which we’re all free to live and love as we see fit.”

Read more on this historical event at the Advocate.

Academy Award-winning Milk screenwriter Dustin Lance Black has been barred from a discussion on sexuality at Hope College in Holland, Mich., because college administrators believe his gay advocacy is divisive and not educational.

Read more on this story at the Advocate.

Chaz Bono, the son of gay icon Cher, will be interviewed on television for the first time since announcing he will undergo gender-reassignment surgery. Bono, 40, was interviewed by Entertainment Tonight’s Mary Hart and Mark Steines at Bono’s Los Angeles home for a series of segments that will appear on the entertainment news program beginning Thursday, October 29 as a kickoff to November sweeps. A source reports that Bono, who was born biologically female but is transitioning to male, has also posed for a photo shoot showing off his newly reconstructed man chest.

Bono’s memoir, titled Coming Clean, is scheduled to be published in the spring of 2011.

A spokesman for the Church of Scientology responded to public claims by Crash director Paul Haggis that the church is antigay, saying that the church’s San Diego branch was incorrectly put on a list of Proposition 8 supporters.

Scientology spokesman Tommy Davis denied the charges Haggis made in a letter that found its way online, according to MSNBC.  Haggis recently left the church after many years, citing its support for the effort to eliminate the right of same-sex couples to marry in California.

Read more on this story at the Advocate.