Can Detroit's First Openly Gay Politician Save the City?
Just one week ago, Charles Pugh was poised to become not only Detroit's first openly gay elected official, but its city council president when voters here go to the polls Tuesday. But the flashy former television reporter has an unpleasant new distinction: Pugh recently acknowledged that his three-story home near downtown Detroit has been foreclosed, raising serious questions about his business acumen at a time when this city is on the brink of financial collapse.
Those revelations, as well as the disclosure that he failed to pay rent on an apartment at several points earlier this decade, have hardly helped Pugh's candidacy. In recent days, the editorial boards of both the Detroit Free Press and the Detroit News pulled their endorsements of him. (The Free Press wrote: "It's simply unreasonable for Detroiters to trust him with their city's finances after he so negligently managed his own.") Pugh dismisses the criticism, and says his financial troubles will actually endear him to voters in a city experiencing some of the most extreme effects of the national real estate crisis. "This is a personal issue I'm dealing with. The city council doesn't pay Detroit's bills," he says, adding, "So I'm very qualified for this job."
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I fail to see why Pugh's sexualtiy rates a headline in this article. His sexuality has been a total non-issue in this council race. If you wanted to be less sensational and more relevant, why not a headline like, "Can a charasimatic political neophyte save the city?" Or even, "Will Detroiters elect on name recognition once again?" The headline as it reads is tabloid fodder - why not just write, "How many people can we get to read this article because the word 'gay' is in the headline."
(For the record, I'm not voting for him because of his inexperience, not because of his sexuality.)
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Pugh's gayness is a small part of his narrative, but also groundbreaking in Detroit's politics. His experience will be instructive for emerging gay politicians across the country, especially on how to manage one's sexual identity on the campaign trail. So that's why Pugh's gayness is noteworthy for TIME's national audience.
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I agree that Pugh's "gayness" would not be a factor at all. He is gay so be it. But thinking that it would be an asset or a detractor to his ability to govern a political body. Is it really noteworthy? Only to people who care about sexual orientation, I for one could care less if he was gay or not, I would only be concerned that he can do the job. So what that his house is in forclosure, so are the houses of other politicians across the country I'm sure. It is an epidemic that has effected alot of people and it has not effected the way they have done their jobs.
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Seems to me that the sudden trumpeting of his 'gayness' is an act of desperation in attempting to 'be something' of meaning to a Liberal political base.
His lack of experience - coupled with his record of personal fiscal mismanagement - seem sufficient to identify and categorize him to 'everyman'...-
2.1
I don't think so. Being gay in Detroit has never been as bad as in many other parts of the country. Ann Arbor had one of the first civil union registration policies and Ferndale, which borders Detroit, has a gay mayor. There's been a long standing gay community here and the state government as well as many of the major corporations are gay friendly. Until the state amendment passed many government agencies and biz corps were even providing domestic partner medical benefits. The Presbyterian body in Detroit even campaigned against the amendment.
Now if Pugh were a politician in Grand Rapids THAT would be a real breakthrough.
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What I find interesting is that he'll be elected for his name recognition and charisma, to a certain extent despite his sexual orientation. It has been astounding to read about churches that typically take a strong anti-gay stance reacting to Pugh with a "well we're focusing on the issues" stance. Celebrity trumps everything.
But to the rest of the country it will seem like Detroit is progressive enough to elect an openly gay candidate.
It's good PR for the city, I think. It's just funny that it's not really the story.
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