Houston Elects Openly Gay Mayor

Annise Parker has become the first openly gay mayor of the nation's 4th largest city.

Parker won the race for mayor of Houston with 53.6% of the vote, according to the AP.

After her opponent, Gene Locke, conceded, Parker said,

"This election has changed the world for the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered community. Just as it is about transforming the lives of all Houstonians for the better, and that's what my administration will be about."

As the Associated Press noted,

The election battle leading up to Saturday's balloting was marked by fierce campaigning and anti-gay rhetoric.

Parker is a lesbian who has never made a secret or an issue of her sexual orientation. But that orientation became focus of the race after anti-gay activists and conservative religious groups endorsed the 61-year-old Locke and sent out mailers condemning Parker's "homosexual behavior."

The AP story closed with this interesting tidbit:

Houston, the country's fourth largest city, is predominantly Democratic and about 25 percent black and one-third Hispanic. About 60,000 of its 2.2 million residents identify as gay or lesbian.

View the story here.