A lot is changing on the gay rights landscape. The military — once a home for staunch homophobia — is now one of the more welcoming employers for openly gay people. Where the last Democratic president sat down and signed the Defense Of Marriage Act into law, the current Democratic president is on a mission to tear it down.
San Francisco, not surprisingly, may have just moved the ball forward another few yards. Witness what a source close to his campaign says is the first campaign ad featuring an openly gay man and his child:
The ad started running California this morning.
The candidate is Bevan Dufty, one of 16 candidates running for Mayor of San Fransisco next month. If he wins, he’ll be the first openly-gay mayor of the city known for being an important home to the LGBT community and those who advocate for its civil rights.
The child is Sidney, Dufty’s daughter and a source of controversy even in the highly tolerant Bay Area. When Dufty — then a member of the board of supervisors — decided to have her with a lesbian friend with whom he had no romantic attachment back in 2006, a local reporter balked, sparking controversy.
Gay parenting, once a highly controversial subject (it still is in some parts) has seen a rise in support in public polling, just as same-sex marriage has. Even though it’s San Francisco, where strides in LGBT acceptance are somewhat dog bites man, the ad could be the first of what may become a common occurrence on the political stage: A gay candidate running openly as a family man.
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