America's first openly bisexual governor. Sudden victory for LGBT people!

[marylander1940]

America's first openly bisexual governor. Sudden victory for LGBT people!

 

SALEM, Ore. — Gov. John Kitzhaber resigned office Friday amid allegations of criminal wrongdoing, almost exactly one month after being sworn in for an unprecedented fourth term. Secretary of State Kate Brown will replace him.

 

"It is not in my nature to walk away from a job I have undertaken," his resignation letter said. "It is to stand and fight for the cause. For that reason I apologize to all those people who gave of their faith, time, energy and resources to elect me to a fourth term last year and who have supported me over the past three decades. I promise you that I will continue to pursue our shared goals and our common cause in another venue."

 

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2015/02/13/oregon-governor-resigns/23365451/

 

Kate Brown

 

New Governor of Oregon

 

Katherine "Kate" Brown is an American politician and member of the Democratic Party. Brown is officially the first openly bisexual Secretary of State of Oregon and was elected to that office in the 2008 elections. Wikipedia

 

Born: June 21, 1960 (age 54), Torrejón de Ardoz, Spain

 

Spouse: Dan Little

 

Office: Secretary of State of Oregon since 2009

 

Party: Democratic Party

 

Education: Lewis & Clark College, University of Colorado Boulder, Lewis & Clark Law School

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kate_Brown_(politician)

[+ purplekow]

I assume this refers to the first openly bisexual governor of the State of Oregon as we here in NJ clearly recall Jim "I am a gay American" McGreevy who was married at the time of his ongoing sexual liaison with a man he appointed to a high security position, as well as other positions one assumes.

[bigvalboy]

Interesting.... I was following this story last night on the TRMS. It was bizarre to say the least. Brown was apparently at a conference in Washington DC and the governor called her, asking her to return to Oregon immediately as he needed to speak with her. Sensing that he might resign, she immediately returned to Oregon. When she arrived back at his office, the governor asked her why she had come back so early. Hmmm....Then said that he had no intention of resigning, but then continued, and asked Brown how they should handle the transition. ...Wait, what?....Perhaps there are other issues with the governor besides corruption.

[marylander1940]

I assume this refers to the first openly bisexual governor of the State of Oregon as we here in NJ clearly recall Jim "I am a gay American" McGreevy who was married at the time of his ongoing sexual liaison with a man he appointed to a high security position, as well as other positions one assumes.

 

Yes, but he wasn't open, he jumped out of the closet promised to resign in 4 months.

[+ Gar1eth]

Interesting.... I was following this story last night on the TRMS. It was bizarre to say the least. Brown was apparently at a conference in Washington DC and the governor called her, asking her to return to Oregon immediately as he needed to speak with her. Sensing that he might resign, she immediately returned to Oregon. When she arrived back at his office, the governor asked her why she had come back so early. Hmmm....Then said that he had no intention of resigning, but then continued, and asked Brown how they should handle the transition. ...Wait, what?....Perhaps there are other issues with the governor besides corruption.

 

 

In case anyone doesn't know what TRMS stands for (I had to web search it), it's 'The Rachel Maddow Show.'

 

Gman

[+ Gar1eth]

Apparently she only came out publicly (which I have no problems with- it's a personal decision) when outed by the Oregonian. Can anyone here find a link to that original article? I'd like to know what why the Oregonian felt that proper to print. It seems very tabloid to me for what I'm assuming is The Paper Of Record for Oregon.

 

Gman

[+ quoththeraven]

I assume this refers to the first openly bisexual governor of the State of Oregon as we here in NJ clearly recall Jim "I am a gay American" McGreevy who was married at the time of his ongoing sexual liaison with a man he appointed to a high security position, as well as other positions one assumes.

 

I think McGreevey considered himself gay, not bisexual, and used his marriage to cover that up. Which does happen.

 

What bothers me more is when it's assumed someone is gay, not bisexual, when they have significant relationships with members of the other sex that include children and the person involved has indicated how they see it. For example -- both characters in Brokeack Mountain, especially Jake Gyllenhall's character; Oscar Wilde. (I'm not saying they're necessarily bisexual, just that we don't have enough information to make a determination one way or the other.) Or when someone says they're attracted to both sex but they and the world use the term "gay" anyway. For example, Joel Gray, who, if you look at his statement, came out as bisexual, not gay. Did the meaning of the word "gay" change from "exclusively attracted to the same sex" to "attracted to the same sex, but not exclusively" -- or maybe now it means both?

[marylander1940]

I think McGreevey considered himself gay, not bisexual, and used his marriage to cover that up. Which does happen....

 

Not so much nowadays, but many of my friends did and even their sons generations.

[+ purplekow]

I suppose one could delineate gay and bisexual as different entities, but I am more of a grouper than a divider, so Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Trans are different but they are part of a larger group and as a grouper. McGreavy was first male and Ms. Brown is the first female queer person. I have to say, I think it is time to stop counting. LBGTQ people are everywhere and in every shade and ethnic group. So, is it really important that someone is the first male to female, once gay now lesbian, half italian, half black, Hawaiian born, former professional athlete, Speaker of the House of the State of State Alabama? because I think that may be the only first left out there.

[+ Charlie]

It is easier to determine who is/was the first "openly" LGBTQ whatever than it is to determine the first LGBTQ whatever. Surely there were/are many officeholders who were/are LGBTQ whom one doesn't know about or only suspects without definitive evidence. For instance, many historians strongly suspect that President James Buchanan was our first homosexual chief executive, but there is no incontrovertible evidence to support that claim, and there are claims that Abraham Lincoln was bisexual, but it can't be proven.

 

And what difference does it make? If the person attains the office after his/her orientation is publicly known, one might try to use that fact as proof of LGBTQ growing social acceptance, or if the person's orientation was previously unknown, one might use it to make the case that it didn't affect the officeholder's competence, but mostly it's a rather weak way to make LGBTQ observers feel better about themselves: the standard identity "pride" gambit. The novelty wears off pretty quickly (can you name the second openly LGBTQ California state assembly speaker?).