Dallas Morning News Makes “Non-Issue” an Issue

Sherry Jacobson writes an article today about Ed Oakley's bid to become the first openly gay mayor of a large U.S. city. 

See article here. 

I've been surprised how little this has been reported on, but it's great that Mr. Oakley has been able to run on his record.  By writing a story on how this as a non-issue, it really makes it into an issue.  There are a lot of people in Dallas who still did not know of Mr. Oakley's sexual orientation.

On a personal note, this is why I don't like for sexual orientation to get automatically lumped into the same category as racial issues.  Discrimination based on sexual orientation is not always the same as discrimination based on race. 

Gay and lesbian candidates can run on the issues important to a campaign without having to wear his or her orientation everywhere he or she goes.   At the same time they are able to mobilize their base who is fully aware of the candidates preference.  Black or "minority" candidates are subject to all biases that people have based on the color of their skin or country of origin.  The same is true in other areas of life.

I had made up my mind not to discuss this, but I felt the need to respond to Ms. Jacobson's story.  It's hard to me to trust the motives of what's coming out of the Dallas Morning News these days.  Since it was reported that the publisher of the newspaper was courting Texas/OU (didn't mention any overtures to PV/Grambling), I've been skeptical of the positions that some of the writers have been taking lately.