An Editorial Reprinted From The Fort Worth Star Telegram

My hometown may be about to get it's first openly Gay elected official. This editorial appeared on Friday in response to the right wingnut attack on Joel Burns, the Gay Democrat running as one of six candidates in the November 6 election. This is not something I thought I would see in my hometown in my lifetime. Maybe we are making progress after all.

Foot in mouth

Star-Telegram

Fort Worth City Councilman Chuck Silcox continues to surprise us -- sometimes pleasantly, other times not.

We were extremely disappointed in his latest headline-making remarks, attempting to make an issue of the fact that council candidate Joel Burns is gay and a Democrat. Burns is one of six candidates in a Nov. 6 special election to succeed outgoing District 9 Councilwoman Wendy Davis, who plans to run for the Texas Senate in 2008.

A candidate's sexual orientation does not determine whether he or she will make an effective council member. Nor does a candidate's political party affiliation.

The Star-Telegram Editorial Board recommended Burns for the District 9 seat because of his experience on important city commissions and his intelligent, well-informed positions on vital municipal and regional issues. His sexual orientation never entered into the board's recommendation discussions, nor should it have.

We thought that Silcox, the longtime District 3 councilman representing much of west and southwest Fort Worth, was above making such narrow-minded remarks. After all, it was he who showed tolerance and political courage in 2000 by leading the charge in reviving support for an ordinance banning discrimination against gays in employment, housing and public accommodations. The ordinance eventually passed.

Silcox, who earlier had voted to table discussion of the proposed ordinance, said he reversed his position after talking to someone who lost his longtime job merely because he was gay. To fire a capable employee merely because of his sexual orientation was unfair, Silcox said.

It's sad to see Silcox inject partisan politics into the District 9 race. Filling potholes and fighting crime aren't Democratic or Republican issues, nor should they be.

Some of the best council members in the city's history have been Democrats, and some have been Republicans. And one reason that they were among the best is that they didn't needlessly and divisively thrust partisan politics into municipal issues.

Contrastingly, Congress often gets little accomplished precisely because of the extreme partisanship displayed by both major parties.

We hope that the District 9 race will return to truly important issues, such as crime prevention, code enforcement and street maintenance -- issues that all Fort Worth residents should be concerned about whether they be heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, Democrat, Republican, Libertarian or independent