The Same-Sex Marriage discussion continues to fascinate me. This (regreq) story, which feels like an April Fools’ story but appears to be true, shows a politician changing the speech on the fly from “making the case” for same-sex marriage to “making our case”. Yep, Gordon Fox, D-Providence and State House Majority Leader is gay, and surprised himself (and his partner of six years) by coming out at a rally of same-sex marriage supporters.
I hope his partner, whose name is not mentioned in the ProJo, is surprised in the flowers-and-chocolate way, and not in the clean-out-your-desk way.
By the way, the current Mayor of Providence, David Cicilline is also openly gay. That’s Providence, not Provincetown.
Redintegro Iraq,
-Vardibidian.
I lived for several years in Providence (though I wasn’t there for Cicilline’s election). I wouldn’t call it a politically progressive city (Rhode Island is a very Catholic state). My sense is that Cicilline was elected (with 83% of the general election vote) because a lot of people said “he’s honest, who cares what he does at home”. (Bear in mind that the last mayor is, of course, in jail.) This pleases me a lot.
And good for Fox!
I don’t know anything about Mayor Cicilline; at the time I remember being surprised that 83% of Providentials (or whatever they are called) preferred an honest man; Buddy seemed so perfect (from Boston, of course). I kept hearing Lisa Simpson’s voice saying ‘I can’t believe so many people voted for a convicted felon! And so few for a different convicted felon!’
But then, I grew up in Arizona, where our elected officials weren’t tied to organized crime, but were what you might call freelance.
Rep. Fox, by the way, does appear to be under investigations for one thing and another himself, but I don’t want that to take away from today’s story.
R.I.,
-V.