A few months back, I posted an article about the glut of gay candidates for Mayor of Portland Oregon. Well…”glut” may have been a misbegotten term, but we did have two viable out, gay candidates at that time. Lots of places have none!

Just a quick update on the whole scene: Developer Bob Ball has stated he will not run for mayor. Mr. Ball committed a major faux pas when he falsely accused the only officially-announced candidate, gay Sam Adams, of an inappropriate relationship with a 17 year old young man. There was no inappropriate relationship and Bob Ball has left the political arena with his tail between his legs.

The most viable challenger for Sam Adams appears to be Sho Dozono, the owner of the venerable Azumano Travel. Dozono is not gay, but he has been a great friend of the community and has garnered the Torchbearer Award, the highest honor bestowed by the Equity Foundation - Oregon’s GLBT Community Foundation.

In April of 2005, Dozono was honored by Basic Rights Oregon for his leadership in ending workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

In further updates from the previous article, Ed Oakley of Dallas Texas lost his bid to become mayor of that city. He would have been the first openly gay mayor of a major city. It is now looking like Portland Oregon may be the next major city where we can actually elect an openly gay mayor who was out BEFORE he ran for the office.

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