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<\/p>\nHouston Mayoral Candidate With History Of Anti-Gay Votes Tries To Buy LGBT Group\u2019s Endorsement<\/b><\/p>\n
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With out lesbian<\/a> Houston Mayor Annise Parker term-limited, candidates to replace her are vigorously seeking the backing of the city’s main LGBT group.<\/p>\n One candidate, state Rep. Sylvester Turner (shown above in last month’s Pride parade), even spent $3,040 to purchase at least 76 memberships in the Houston GLBT Political Caucus to try to win the group’s endorsement.<\/p>\n The Houston Chronicle<\/em><\/a> reports:<\/p>\n Caucus President Maverick Welsh, however, said the campaigns’ efforts will not be enough to tip the scales.<\/p>\n “We know campaigns actively try to push as many people into the room as possible, and that’s why we’ve strategically tried to grow our membership over the last year and a half,” Welsh said. “I don’t think any candidate has enough members to be able to buy an endorsement.” …<\/p>\n “It’s kind of nice to be in the position of being the belle of the ball for once,” he said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Project Q Houston<\/a> notes that Turner’s decision to purchase memberships is particularly interesting given that he’s cast some anti-gay<\/a> votes as a member of the Texas Legislature. He voted in favor of banning same-sex<\/a> marriage in 2003. He also voted to ban gay<\/a> foster parents in 2005:<\/p>\n Turner claims he’s since evolved on LGBT issues, but critics say his shift is politically motivated. Turner was dogged by gay rumors<\/a> in the 1991 mayor’s race, but his spokeswoman, Sue Davis, said she doesn’t expect them to come up again:<\/p>\n “Twenty-three years ago, starting rumors that your opponent was gay<\/a> was a time-honored political tactic,” Davis said in an email. “Times have changed. Politics is as rough as it always was – but for candidates, gay<\/a>-baiting invariably backfires.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n The Houston Press<\/em><\/a> detailed the gay<\/a> rumors about Turner in a story in 1994 by reporter Wayne Dolcefino. Turner was apparently living with a man<\/a> whom he had represented in an estate case involving another man<\/a> who faked his death:<\/p>\n In addition to the suggestion that Turner had been involved in something crooked, the Channel 13 report, by its references to a “male<\/a> model” and “hairdresser” and its film of the man<\/a> Turner supposedly was sharing a house with, left viewers with another impression: that Turner might be gay<\/a>. …<\/p>\n Dolcefino, in parts of his deposition cited by his lawyers, says that while working on the scam story he met with [private investigator Bill] Elliott in the parking lot of the Allen Park Inn, where he was shown a copy of a statement the investigator had taken from Cheryl Turner in which she professed to have recorded “graphic, sexually related phone conversations” between Turner and other men<\/a> and identified “certain individuals with whom Mr. Turner was allegedly having homosexual relations….”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Regardless of the gay<\/a> rumors, another candidate says Turner’s voting history demonstrates a lack of consistency on LGBT issues. Former Congressman Chris Bell voted against a federal marriage amendment in 2004 and received a 100 percent score from the Human Rights Campaign. From The Texas Observer<\/em><\/a>:<\/p>\n “I think many Americans, if not most Americans, have evolved over the last 10 years on LGBT issues, and I include myself in that group, along with President Barack Obama, along with Hillary Clinton and so many others,” Turner said. “People evolve, and I think that’s what we want people to do.” …<\/p>\n “I think many of us evolved on the issue of marriage equality,” said Bell, a one-time board member for Equality Texas. “There are certain issues that weren’t marriage equality that were just basically trying to address outright discrimination, and that’s a course of a different color.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n The post Houston Mayoral Candidate With History Of Anti-Gay Votes Tries To Buy LGBT Group’s Endorsement<\/a> appeared first on Towleroad<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n
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