…you know where.Tuesday is a big day for six Victory Fund-endorsed candidates in Texas. Brian Thompson, Glen Maxey, Lupe Valdez, Andres Pereira, Steve Kirkland and Rosemary Lehmberg are all doing last-minute footwork to try to get their voters to the polls for their respective primaries.  Below, get to know each of the candidates and why they deserve your support.

Brian Thompson
Running for: Texas state House of Representatives, District 46
About Brian: Brian is an attorney who contributes pro-bono legal services to the Political Asylum Project of Austin, a nonprofit organization that provides legal services to those in need.
Why he deserves your support: Brian is challenging an unpopular Democratic incumbent who faces corruption allegations and has close ties with Texas Republican leaders. If elected, Brian would bring an LGBT presence to the Texas legislature. There are currently no openly gay state legislators.
Support Brian’s campaign!

Glen Maxey
Running for: Tax Assessor Collector, Travis County
About Glen: A former state representative, Glen was one of the Victory Fund’s first-ever endorsees.
Why he deserves your support: Glen’s support of LGBT causes goes back to 1987, when he was the executive director of the Lesbian/Gay Rights Lobby of Texas
Support Glen’s campaign! 

Lupe Valdez
Running for: Sheriff, Dallas County
About Lupe: When she was elected in 2004, Lupe became Texas’s first female, lesbian and latina sheriff.
Why she deserves your support: Lupe’s race is particularly hot. She faces challengers in the Democratic primary as well as in the general election. The Republican party is pushing hard to get Democrats out of office in Texas, and Lupe is high on their list of targets.
Support Lupe’s campaign!

Andres Pereira
Running for: Judge, 190th Civil District Court
About Andres: Andres has twelve years of experience as an attorney.
Why he deserves your support: Andres is conscious of his community. He serves on the Board of Texans Together, a nonprofit, non-partisan organization dedicated to increasing civic participation through education and advocacy.
Support Andres’ campaign!

Steve Kirkland
Running for: Judge, 215th Civil District Court
About Steve: Steve is currently an appointed judge for the city of Houston. He serves as vice chair of the State Bar of Texas’ section on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Issues.
Why he deserves your support: Steve’s race is a county-wide position, so he must reach all of the more than four million people in Harris County.
Support Steve’s campaign!

Rosemary Lehmberg
Running for: District Attorney, Travis County
About Rosemary: Rosemary currently serves as the first assistant to District Attorney Ronnie Earle. Ronnie has endorsed her for the position. In her current role, Rosemary helps fight public corruption in Texas (read more about that here).
Why she deserves your support: Rosemary is the most experienced candidate for this high profile, important position.
Support Rosemary’s campaign!

Openly gay Minnesota state Sen. Scott Dibble was instrumental in passing a landmark transportation bill earlier this week,  helping the legislature override a veto by Gov. Tim Pawlenty.

The bill, which increased gas taxes, metro sales taxes and vehicle license tab fees, passed on Thursday only to see a veto the very next day. According to the Pioneer Press, the money created by the bill would go to $6.6 billion in road, bridge and transit construction projects over the next 10 years.

Dibble served as the proposal’s chief transit advocate.

Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin has confronted Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice about the discriminatory employment practices toward LGBT employees within the State Department. In a letter, Baldwin (along with Reps. Howard Berman, Gary Ackerman and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen) demanded that Rice immediately change the department’s policies.

Baldwin’s demands included:

• Inclusion in travel orders for same-sex domestic partners of foreign service officers (FSOs)
• Access to training, including language and security classes, for same-sex domestic partners of FSOs
• Emergency evacuation and medevac from post when necessary for same-sex domestic partners of FSOs
• Access to post health units for same-sex domestic partners of FSOs
• Visa support for same-sex domestic partners accompanying FSOs to overseas postings, and for same-sex foreign-born domestic partners accompanying FSOs to postings in Washington or elsewhere in the U.S.
• Preferential status for employment at post comparable to that enjoyed by eligible family Members for same-sex domestic partners of FSOs

Baldwin’s letter read, in part:

We have followed with great interest and concern the media coverage of the workplace inequities facing gays and lesbians in the U.S. Department of State. As in the case of Former Ambassador to Romania Michael Guest, the inequitable treatment of gay and lesbian Foreign Service Officers (FSOs) and their partners should not be allowed to lead highly qualified employees to leave the State Department at a time when their service is needed more than ever. Many of these inequities could clearly be remedied through your leadership as Secretary, without legislative changes. We write to highlight basic and common-sense policy changes that beg your prompt attention and ask that you act to make eliminating inequities facing gays and lesbians at the State Department a priority.

Today’s Indiana Star examines the curious case of Jon Elrod, a 30-year-old Republican who has drawn attention for his liberal stance on gay marriage. The current state representative is running a Congressional campaign to serve a district that encompasses much of Marion County.

Elrod has stood out among his conservative peers in the Indiana House as the only Republican to refuse to sign a petition that would make gay marriage unconstitutional (it is already illegal). While he has never had an opportunity to vote against the issue yet, he has vowed to become the state’s first Republican to vote against an amendment in the four years the issue has been on the table.

Elrod, an amateur stage actor and former rugby player, has been called a RINO (Republican in Name Only) by some conservative bloggers.

The newspaper writes:

In some ways, said Brian Vargus, a political scientist at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, Elrod seems to epitomize the struggle gripping the Republican Party, the same struggle evident in the Republican presidential nominating process. John McCain is capturing votes but has yet to be embraced by Christian conservatives.

“The Republican Party is undergoing significant tensions within itself,” Vargus said. “It is kind of hard to characterize them one way or another.”

The irony with Elrod’s opposition to the marriage amendment is that Elrod said his position is rooted in a basic Christian principle.

“I think marriage is a sacrament. That means it is something ordained by God. To have government dictating what that is is generally a bad idea,” he said. “Right now we define marriage pretty poorly by the government. You are married just as long as you want to be…

“That is not at all what my church teaches.”

Elrod is running in the 7th district of Indiana, the district that Julia Carson served in Congress until her death last December. He is running against Democrat Andre Carson, Julia’s grandson.

In a country where homosexuality is essentially illegal under a law that bans “unnatural sex,” five Nepalese gay men are running for elected office in an effort to shake up the status quo.

“We are standing in the elections to fight the discrimination against our community,” Sunil Babu Pant, founder of the Blue Diamond Society, told Reuters. “This is a very symbolic approach to tell all Nepalis that we have equal rights.”

The men are running with the Nepal Communist Party for seats on the new 601-seat constituent assembly in the nation’s first national vote since 1999.

In Nepal, LGBT citizens claim to face job and school discrimination and are sometimes the victims of assault or rape. There are, however, promising signs for the future. A December Supreme Court decision ended discrimination against gays and sexual minorities.

The election will take place April 10.