From the Mayor’s GLBT Liaison
Why the GLBT Community Needs to Re-elect Mayor Brown
By

I have waited with bated breath until election month to tell you how I "really feel" about the mayoral election on November 6. My position as liaison to the GLBT community is nonpartisan, and I have done my best to be a liaison for the entire community. My focus has been on what issues are important to us.

I am sure it comes as no surprise to any of you that I am, with conviction, for Mayor Lee P. Brown’s re-election to his third and final term as mayor. I would like to share with you why I am ardent about Mayor Brown the man and Mayor Brown the mayor.

Our mayor was the first mayor to:

• Issue an executive order banning discrimination of city employees based on sexual orientation;

• Ride in a Pride Parade–and now the first mayor to ride in two Pride parades;

• Sponsor a community forum to seek the GLBT community’s input on key issues, and then modify his agenda based on our collective advice;

• Go out on a limb for nondiscrimination and same-sex benefits in an election year;

• Create a Hate Crimes Division within the City of Houston.

And that is not a complete list…

Mayor Brown has done what he said he would do for us.

Our community must have a voice in City Hall that represents us. I cannot tell you how available Mayor Brown has been to my calls and our voice. To lose that would be very sad for our community.

The mayor’s opponents in the upcoming mayoral race do not believe that the GLBT liaison appointment is necessary or important. One of the mayor’s opponents said that he would eliminate the position, as he already knew the needs of the community. I take issue with this. I draw the analogy that you cannot know what it is like to be GLBT unless you are GLBT, any more than you can know what it is like to be African-American if you are Anglo-American.

During Mayor Brown’s first two terms, Houston’s jobless rate and crime rate have both dropped. We have more police officers and firefighters than ever before. The city budget required no tax hike, nor any water or sewer increases.

The mayor is also busy engaging support for the "Vote No on City Prop 2" campaign being waged by People for a Fair Houston. Proposition 2 is seeking to prohibit the city from granting domestic partner benefits for the city’s GLBT employees. Major businesses such as Chase and Shell are standing with us and the mayor in this battle. He has stepped up to the plate and will not retreat. He knows our fear ... our fear of a repeat of 1985. Our community, our city, and our world are a different place now in 2001. I hope that vision prevails on November 6.

Now we all must step up to the plate and vote our hearts and our minds on November 6 … the key is simply to vote.

Hopefully, this will not be my last column. But should it be, I thank you all for reading my column and for being the open, honest, and interested GBLT community that I have been proud to be a part of. Thank you.