Victory in the News

Off-Year Advances: LGBT advocacy organizations celebrate Election Day results

The off-year elections, normally a slow-paced night for national coverage, featured several ballot measures – including Ohio, Mississippi and Maine – that garnered significant attention. Additionally, from Texas to Iowa to Michigan, from Arizona to Ohio to Massachusetts, LGBT candidates and issues saw significant successes.

As the Victory Fund's vice president for communications, Denis Dison, told Metro Weekly late Nov. 8, ''It's been a very, very good night for LGBT candidates. Right now it looks like more than two thirds of Victory Fund-endorsed candidates will win, and LGBT candidates have made significant breakthroughs in cities and towns across the country, including Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Houston and Charlotte.''

Gay Republican accuses Dem of gay-baiting in Va.

A gay Republican running for state Senate in Virginia is accusing his Democratic incumbent opponent of engaging in gay-baiting tactics, an assertion supported by an audio recording obtained by the Washington Blade of inflammatory remarks made by a Democratic volunteer. 

Denis Dison, a Victory Fund spokesperson, said the alleged gay-baiting "has no place in politics" and came to the defense of his organization's endorsed candidate. 

Senate confirms lesbian to federal judiciary

The U.S. Senate confirmed on Thursday an out judicial nominee to become the second-ever open lesbian to sit on the federal bench.

Senators confirmed Alison Nathan, whom President Obama nominated in March for a seat on the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of New York, by a vote of 48-44. 

Chuck Wolfe, CEO of the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund, called the Nathan confirmation "another step toward America's leadership class reflecting the country it serves." 

Longtime gay activist Frank Kameny dies

Expressions of condolences from LGBT activists and their straight supporters poured in from across the country this week following the death in Washington on Tuesday of Franklin E. Kameny, one of the nation’s most prominent gay rights leaders.

Chuck Wolfe, CEO of the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund, said Kameny’s death marked the “loss of a hero and a founding father of the fight to end discrimination against LGBT people.”

San Diego considers an openly gay GOP mayor

SAN DIEGO - Two leading Republican contenders for mayor of America's eighth-largest city are openly gay, and voters have barely noticed. It doesn't come up at campaign appearances or in local news coverage. 

A nationwide Gallup poll in June showed 67 percent of voters surveyed would elect a gay president, up 12 percentage points from four years ago. The Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund says the number of openly gay officeholders nationwide doubled in the last four years to about 500. They include Annise Parker, a Democrat who was elected mayor of Houston in 2009.