Portland, Oregon - City Commisioner Sam Adams was elected to be the first-ever openly gay mayor to lead one of the 30 largest U.S. cities.

Adams won 58 percent of the vote against 12 other candidates - enough to avoid a run-off election in November.

Sam Adams’s campaign motto - “Early days of a better nation” - is a call to action for the city and a reference to his own upbringing, which included food stamps and general poverty.

“I will work hard with all of you, and believe me you’re going to be working hard as well,” he told a gathering of his supporters, as quoted in The Oregonian.

“Together we can make Portland cleaner, greener, more sustainable, smarter, more equal, better educated. We’ve done it before, and we will do it again.”

Adams, 44, was Portland’s youngest chief of staff at the age of 29. He is well-known for his connections to former mayor Vera Katz. When he was elected to the City Commission in 2004, he became the first GLBT member of Portland’s elected government. As a commissioner, he helped create the domestic partner registry and expanded the city’s anti-discrimination law to include gender identity.

“In Oregon, fairness has won the day. These victories mean that people who are openly gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender can also be seen as capable, committed leaders whose sexual orientation or gender identity is less important than what they plan to do for their communities. That’s a step toward full equality that we want to replicate across America,” said Chuck Wolfe, president and CEO of the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund, in a written statement Tuesday.

Oregon Democrats also chose openly bisexual state senator Kate Brown to run for Secretary of State against a Republican opponent in November. Brown, who is expected to win the general election, would be the highest ranking bisexual elected official of any state. She currently serves as the Majority Leader of the Oregon State Senate. In Oregon, the Secretary of State is an extremely important position because it includes many important duties and also because Oregon has no Lieutenant Governor, making Secretary of State the next in line to the Governor’s office.

Oregon resoundingly endorsed Barack Obama’s candidacy for President of the United States. Earlier in the week, Obama held a rally at Portland’s Waterfront Park that drew 75,000 people - making it the largest political gathering ever in Oregon.

An interesting November contest brews between U.S. Senator Gordon Smith, a Republican, and newly-minted Democratic challenger Jeff Merkley. Merkley is currently the state’s Speaker of the House and he was a key supporter of Oregon’s recently-passed domestic partnership and anti-discrimination laws. Smith “has carried many, many pieces of gay-supportive legislation in the U.S. Senate, including measures to extend benefits to federal workers’ same-sex partners, to end the immigration ban on HIV-positive travelers and to have Medicaid cover early HIV treatment for people not yet diagnosed with AIDS,” according to The Advocate. In addition, he has joined Sen Ted Kennedy (D-Mass) in introducing the Matthew Shepard Act.

Photo: The Oregonian
Quotes: The Advocate

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