The election of openly gay public officials in American communities / James W. Button, Kenneth D. Wald, Barbara A. Rienzo

J. Button, K. Wald, B. Rienzo

As a newly emergent political minority, lesbians and gay men have begun to seek representation in political office, particularly at the local level. Using a purposeful sample of 126 cities and counties, the authors explore openly gay candidacies for, and election to, public office in the early 1990s. They employed four theoretical models_urbanism/social diversity, resource mobilization, political opportunity structure, and communal protest_that have been useful in explaining African-American, Latino, and female electoral success. The nature and pattern of electoral activities of lesbians and gay men are similar to those of other disadvantaged minorities.