GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

November 8, 1996

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Openly gay candidates Ayres and Zbur lose

by Bob Boone

Had his bid for judge of the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas been successful, Jeffrey Ayres would have become Ohio's first openly gay elected official. Instead, by a margin of 180,000 to 92,000, Ayres was defeated by incumbent Judge James O'Grady.

While Ayres ran as an openly gay candidate, his being gay did not become an issue in the campaign. Both candidates focused on their records, experience, and the endorsements which each received. Commenting on his campaign, Ayres said, "I feel really good about everything we did this year, about running openly gay."

In California's 38th District, Democrat Rick Zbur suffered a 14-point loss to two-term Republican incumbent Stephen Horn and missed his chance to become one of just three openly gay members of the U.S. House of Representatives.

The other two, Arizona's Jim Kolbe and Massachusetts' Barney Frank, were both reelected by wide margins. Steve Gunderson, of Wisconsin, and Gerry Studds, of Massachusetts, did not seek reelection.

Zbur's victory in the March primary had made him the first openly gay non-incumbent to win a contested primary for the U.S. House of Representatives.

26 gay candidates win

Across the country, 26 openly gay or les bian candidates were elected or re-elected to state legislatures and local offices, according to the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund. Eleven other gay or lesbian candidates tracked by the fund lost.

Ed Flanagan became the first openly gay person elected to a statewide office, winning the Vermont state auditor's seat by a 10-point margin.

Openly gay representatives were elected for the first time to state legislatures in Nevada, Connecticut, Montana, Rhode Island, Washington, and Illinois. Twenty openly gay and lesbian officials now serve in 15 state legisla

tures.

By winning the District of Columbia's nonvoting"shadow" seat in the U.S. House, Sabrina Sojourner has become the only openly lesbian African-American in elective office.

Election makes only minor changes

Continued from page 1

elected in 1972.

Mandy Carter, who worked to defeat Helms, said that Gantt's loss was not indicative of a failure of the grass-roots effort. "The bad news is that Senator Jesse Helms has won six more years in the US Senate," Carter told callers to the N.C. Mobe office. "The good news is that North Carolina's lesbian, gay, transgender and allied community did do phenomenal work around the state to make a difference."

In Ohio, the Republicans also fared well. With the exception of Martin Hoke, who was unseated in the 10th congressional district by state senator Dennis Kucinich, every other U.S. House race was won by the incumbent.

In Franklin County, 12th district Republican incumbent John Kasich won a resounding victory over challenger Cynthia Ruccia, whose campaign suffered a setback in the last two months when she was accused of "gay-baiting" after going public with ethics.concerns about Kasich's living arrangement and financial dealings with his chief of staff, Donald Thibaut. The election was Ruccia's second attempt to oust Kasich from Congress, and she ended up with 31 percent of the vote.

According to political consultant Eric Resnick, who worked on the Paul McClain campaign in the 4th congressional district, low voter turnout among Democrats was one of the reasons that the status quo was main. tained.

"I'm still down in the 4th district, one of the most Democratic precincts in the state, and we only had a 30 percent turnout," Resnick said. But Resnick also saw a silv lining in the 10th district race betwee Kucinich and Hoke, which went down to th wire.

"Kucinich was one of the only candidate in the country that wasn't afraid to tackle th gay issue," Resnick said. “He brought Barne Frank in, he always appreciated the ve visible support from the gay community We need to look at that race and use that one of our benchmarks for future congres sional races. Because what happened there against tremendous odds, is that Dennis brought us into the fold. Even though every conservative talk show was gay-baiting and calling him a commie, he still won, which will show people who study the gay and lesbian vote that our visible support in 1 congressional race is an asset, not liability."

Historian looks at black lesbian live

Continued from page 1

"What we define as lesbian doesn't necessarily even apply to the ways people thought

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about and defined their lives before the mod a ern lesbian gay liberation movement," sai Smith. "We have a whole range of kinds interactions and feelings that exist betw human beings, not necessarily categori by the labels that we use in modern times The research that Smith is doing is the project of its kind.

"There is a flourishing and growing f lesbian and gay studies in this country said. "However, it is primarily white, it is male, and it certainly is not black and fe

Smith said that while she wants her include both gay men and lesbians, it i cially important to collect information history of African American lesbians cisely because it is so difficult to find. explained that because women have to different standards of behavior than and often suffered harsher conseque deviating from a socially accepted no bians have been more careful than g about preserving their privacy and discovery, and were less likely to rec mation about their same-sex relatio writing.

It is about making it up from sc that's exactly what I did 20 or so y When I became involved with black w literature," said Smith. “This is a simila of work. I think I like the challenge."