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On to the day when
sexuality doesn't matter
From thnt.com Online,
January 8, 2008
Neptune is expected to name its first
openly gay mayor today. Township Committeeman Randy Bishop, the owner of
an inn in Ocean Grove, won a second term on the Township Committee last fall.
Now he is due to be elevated to the mayoral post by his fellow committee
members. He would become the second openly gay mayor in New Jersey and the
third in its history. The other openly gay mayor to currently serve,
Maywood's Tim Eustace, was elected by popular vote in November.
Bishop's likely ascension has made headlines across the region, as have the
elections of other openly gay politicians in recent years. And gay
advocacy groups seem delighted by the attention; Steven Goldstein, chairman of
Garden State Equality, called Bishop's election "extraordinarily important.
It will encourage other lesbian and gay people to run for office, and further
encourage politicians who are lesbian and gay but not open about it to be open
about it."
There is probably something to Goldstein's fervor.
And yet Bishop himself seems somewhat nonplussed by the attention. After
all, he told a reporter, "It really is a small piece of what makes me who I am."
Bishop's outlook undoubtedly has been shaped by his experiences as a gay man,
much as any of us who have ever been a minority of any kind have found ourselves
reassessing accepted norms. But he is adamant that it does not define him
or his politics.
"I guess it's still an oddity for openly gay people to be in elected politics,"
Bishop said in an interview with Gannett New Jersey. "The same as for
years it was probably true of African-Americans, of people of the Latino
cultures, of Asian cultures. It's the oddity because today it's so few.
Hopefully, it will come to the point where people aren't looked at as though
they are in a box, but by what they bring to the table."
We couldn't have said it better. What we really ought to be longing for is
a day when Randy Bishop is sworn in as mayor and no one pauses to note his
sexuality.
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