Lesbian To Run For Mayor Of Houston

Openly lesbian Houston comptroller Annise Parker, 52, has announced that she will run for mayor. If successful, Parker will become the first openly gay mayor of a top ten U.S. city.

Parker is considered one of the early frontrunners to replace Houston Mayor Bill White, who’s term limited and plans to run as a Democrat for U.S. Senate in 2010. In an interview with Dallas Voice on Friday, Jan. 30, Parker said while it’s critical for the LGBT community to be active and represented in electoral politics, making history isn’t the motive behind her campaign.

“I want to be mayor of Houston,” she said, adding that she’s a native of the city and has spent her entire adult life there. “Municipal government is so much about making sure the trash gets picked up and the potholes get filled, that sometimes all that other discussion can be a distraction. … Obviously, I have paid my dues in the community and have never turned down an opportunity to stand up for the GLBT community, but right now it’s about representing all of Houston.”

Parker, a past president of the Houston GLBT Political Caucus, already is among the top openly LGBT city officials in the nation, representing 2.2 million people. Houston is the fourth-most-populous city in the U.S., while Dallas is ninth. Currently, the largest city with an openly gay mayor is Portland, Ore., which ranks 30th in population.

Let's cross our fingers that there are no 17/18 year old hotties in Parker's recent past.

CORRECTION: I mistakenly listed Dallas as the city in question, probably because the story came from the Dallas Voice. My apologies. Houston. Houston. Houston.