Close But No Cigar

So apparently in Dallas it's more important for the mayor to be straight than to have any experience whatsoever in matters of city affairs.

You may have heard that Dallas was on its way to electing an openly gay mayor, making it the largest city in the country to do so. But it was not to be. When the votes were counted, Tom Leppert defeated Ed Oakley by 58% to 42%.

Now that they've lost, the spin in the Dallas gay community is how great it is that an openly gay man came so close to winning the mayoral election. And that's true. I don't want to take that away from them.

But the reality is this: a man with absolutely NO qualifications to be mayor of America's ninth largest city soundly defeated an experienced city councilman who happened to be gay. This Leppert fellow had no name recognition. He has never held ANY public office. Hell, he's only lived in Dallas four years and he hasn't even voted in any previous mayoral election.

Apparently the majority of Dallas voters believe being straight is more important than being qualified, and that's very sad.