Come out come out, wherever you are. We need you to run for office. That’s the message groups like the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund are trumpeting after the Nov. 2 elections.

Gay Georgians suffered a devastating loss when citizens voted 3-to-1 on Nov. 2 to change the state constitution to ban same-sex marriage.

And in the 2005 state legislative session, many gay rights activists fear an empowered conservative and evangelical base will regard this vote as a mandate to chip away at other gay family rights, including adoptions.

One way to prevent an onslaught on gay citizens is to recruit openly gay candidates to run for office as well as assist them in their campaigns, said Chuck Bowen, executive director of Georgia Equality, a statewide gay political group.

“And I don’t mean just at the statewide level — we need this from the school boards all the way to the governor,” he said.

In the past, Georgia Equality has at times chosen to endorse gay-friendly candidates over gay challengers, when the group felt the non-gay candidate was more viable or had already proven to be an ally on gay issues.

But the organization hopes to see a broad field of gay hopefuls running for office in the future, Bowen said.

“I think in the Nov. 2 election, we got put into a separate class. We’re a whole different culture as far as the religious right is concerned, and also with many Georgians,” he said.

“This lack of understanding creates fear and one very important way to diminish this fear is for more gay candidates to run for office,” Bowen said.

‘More of our own’
Chuck Wolfe, director of the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund, which trains and endorses gay politicians across the country, said it is crucial for more gay candidates to seek public office.

“Oftentimes we make political alliances with those who call themselves gay-friendly, but when the issues get delicate or tough, we find they are not our friends,” Wolfe said. “We need more of our own in office.”

Across the nation on Nov. 2, at least 65 openly gay and lesbian candidates were on the ballots at all level of governments, according to the Victory Fund. Of those, 41 candidates in 20 states won, including in five of the 13 states that have passed constitutional amendments to ban gay marriage this year: Georgia, Utah, Michigan, Oregon and Missouri.

If more gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered candidates run for office and succeed, then when issues directly pertaining to those citizens come up for debate, their stands will be clear, Wolfe said.

“You won’t find an excuse from a gay candidate — we don’t make excuses for being gay,” he said. “And if we going to create equality for our community, we are going to have to take responsibility.”

Georgia’s gay politicians
Cathy Woolard became Georgia’s first openly gay elected official in 1997, when she was elected to the District 6 seat on the Atlanta City Council.

In 2001, Woolard made history again when she was elected Atlanta City Council president and became the first woman and first gay person to hold the city’s second-highest elected post.

During her City Council tenure, Woolard scored several significant wins for gay residents, including authoring a non-discrimination ordinance that featured a first-ever ban on sexual orientation bias by private companies in the city.

But Woolard resigned her City Council post earlier this year for an unsuccessful bid for U.S. Congress, leaving her out of public office for the first time in six years and only one openly gay elected official in Atlanta city government. Anne Fauver holds Woolard’s old District 6 seat and has taken a less vocal role on gay issues than her predecessor.

Today, the state’s most visible gay politician is state Rep. Karla Drenner (D-Avondale Estates), who was elected to a third term earlier this month. Drenner, the legislature’s only openly gay member, was the face of the fight against Amendment 1 and has said she promises to fight all anti-gay legislation proposed under the Gold Dome in 2005.

“We are disappointed, but we are not defeated,” Drenner said Nov. 2, as passage of the amendment banning gay marriage grew clear. “Every time gay people are attacked with these types of measures many more step forward and tell the truth about ...

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