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LGBT mayors around the world
December 30th, 2009
- Berlin mayor Klaus Wowereit
On Monday, Jan. 4, Annise Parker will be sworn in as mayor of Houston. Houston will become the largest city in the world with a lesbian mayor and the second largest city with a gay or lesbian mayor.
Houston and Paris have approximately the same populations, the ranking might change next year with the new U.S. census. The number used here is the latest estimate from the U.S. Census Bureau and the official French population estimate.
California and New York are tied as the states with the most LGBT mayors (four each). Massachusetts and Maryland each have three. Texas has two. (A third, the mayor of San Angelo, resigned earlier this year). Florida and Oregon also each have two.
California’s four cities with gay mayors include a total population of about 200,000. New York’s four mayors govern a total population of fewer than 50,000.
Germany and Spain are the only other countries in the world with more than one LGBT mayor.
That means that as of next week, Texas has more LGBT mayors than all but two other countries in the world. Take that liberal Canada.
|
Name |
City |
Population |
| Klaus Wowereit (G) | Berlin, Germany |
3,431,675 |
| Annise Parker (L) | Houston, Tex. |
2,208,180 |
| Bertrand Delanoë (G) | Paris, France |
2,203,817 |
| Ole von Beust (G) | Hamburg, Germany |
1,800,000 |
| Sam Adams (G) | Portland, Ore. |
550,396 |
| Jerónimo Saavedra Acevedo (G) | Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain |
381,123 |
| Corine Mauch (L) | Zurich, Switzerland |
347,517 |
| David Cicilline (G) | Providence, R.I. |
176,862 |
| E. Denise Simmons (L) | Cambridge, Mass. |
101,388 |
| Mike Gin (G) | Redondo Beach, Calif. |
66,882 |
| Kevin Burns (G) | North Miami, Fla. |
59,880 |
| Steve Pougnet (G) | Palm Springs, Calif. |
47,906 |
| Christopher Cabaldon (G) | West Sacramento, Calif. |
47,511 |
| Kevin Dumas (G) | Attleboro, Mass. |
42,833 |
| Mitch Ward (G) | Manhattan Beach, Calif. |
36,536 |
| Jeffrey Slavin (G) | Chevy Chase, Md. |
32,803 |
| Mary Clare Higgins (L) | Northampton, Mass. |
28,411 |
| Jim Ireton (G) | Salisbury, Md. |
27,833 |
| Bill Hanauer (G) | Ossining, N.Y. |
23,798 |
| Craig Covey (G) | Ferndale, Mich. |
21,112 |
| Gary Resnick (G) | Wilton Manors, Fla. |
12,616 |
| Maurice Richard (G) | Bécancour, Québec, Canada |
11,051 |
| Stu Rasmussen (T) | Silverton, Ore. |
9,433 |
| Tim Eustace (G) | Maywood, N.J. |
9,145 |
| John Shields (G) | Nyack, N.Y. |
6,833 |
| Pete Fosselman (G) | Kensington, Md. |
1,946 |
| Elic Senter (G) | Franklinton, N.C. |
1,946 |
| Jim Gaughan (G) | Altamont, N.Y. |
1,701 |
| Matt Ganssle (G) | Kemp, Tex. |
1281 |
| Charles Palermo (G) | Red Creek, N.Y. |
485 |
| Francisco Maroto (G) | Campillo de Ranas, Spain |
184 |
|
|
(G)= gay (L)=lesbian (T)=transgender
Tags: Annise Parker, Berlin, Hamburg, Houston, Klaus Wowereit, mayor, Paris, Portland, Providence, Zurich
December 30th, 2009 at 11:11 am
Come on! There’s gotta be a bisexual mayor out there somewhere!
December 30th, 2009 at 11:21 am
Sorry, Tish. Didn’t find one and Victory Fund doesn’t list any either. You may just have to run, maybe for mayor of Kingston, Jamaica.
December 30th, 2009 at 2:05 pm
I’m surprised to see N.C on that list.
December 30th, 2009 at 3:13 pm
You missed:
Ruth Illingworth Mullingar, Ireland
http://www.mamanpoulet.com/councillor-ruth-illingworth-makes-history/
December 30th, 2009 at 3:32 pm
Social comments and analytics for this post…
This post was mentioned on Twitter by moonfruit_queen: LGBT mayors around the world http://bit.ly/5mXWla…
December 30th, 2009 at 4:13 pm
Hi from Germany.
The major of Bodenmais (p 3.380), Bavaria, Germany, Michael Adam (24), is gay [schwul in german](http://jetzt.sueddeutsche.de/texte/anzeigen/493027).
December 31st, 2009 at 11:48 am
I don’t consider the actions of Sam Adams, the mayor of Portland positive for anyone. After admitting to lying while in office, having sex with an underage boy, telling him to lie about the encounters Adams cast negativity over the entire town.
January 2nd, 2010 at 11:08 pm
Where are you getting this dated information? For instance, in North Carolina Mike Nelson is mayor of Carrboro, which is a small city with a history of GLBTQ city council members and borders with Chapel Hill in the state’s Research Triangle area (Raleigh/Durham/Chaoel Hill). And Chapel Hill just elected a gay mayor, Mark Kleinschmidt. In the home turf of Jesse Helms, this conservative state now has three openly-gay or lesbian mayors!
January 3rd, 2010 at 7:32 am
The list is only current mayors and mostly comes from the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund. A few additional mayors were found with an on-line search but others were probably missed. While the list may be incomplete, it is current.
The new mayor of Chapel Hill is indeed Mark Kleinschmidt who is openly gay. Thank you for the addition. The population of that city is 48,715, placing it between Palm Springs and North Miami and moving North Carolina into the multicity category.
The current mayor of Carrboro, N.C. is Mark Chilton, not gay.
Dallas has also had a number of gay city council members, and there are a number of LGBT mayors pro tem around the country, but the list is only currently serving mayors. West Hollywood has had gay mayors (and now has its first straight mayor since incorporating). Most of its city council is gay but that city doesn’t make the current list.
Anyone have any others to add to the list?
January 4th, 2010 at 10:47 am
Maryland has a fourth, my friend Bruce Williams, the Mayor of Takoma Park a town of about 18,000 residents.
Chapel Hill’s population is about 55,000 putting us somewhere between Palm Springs and N. Miami.
January 4th, 2010 at 1:29 pm
Thanks Mayor Kleinschmidt. Congratulations on your win and sorry I missed you in my first list. I’m sure you won for the same reason Annise did – more and more people are simply voting for the BEST candidate, and not voting against people simply because they are the gay candidate.
Adding Bruce Williams to the list puts Maryland up there in a tie with New York and California.