Though Houston tourism officials have long sought to attract LGBT travelers to the city, the election of Annise Parker, an out lesbian, has “clearly benefitted” that effort, according to one city official interviewed by EDGE contributor Joseph Erbentraut, who writes:

Many media pundits clamored that Parker’s election in Houston marked the advent of the city’s venture to cash in on gay and lesbian visitors - a particularly attractive market in these economic times.

But the city – the fourth-largest in the country -  had begun their campaign years ago. The ad campaign had been years in the making. The timing, it turns out, was almost entirely coincidental with Parker’s election, which electrified LGBT Americans.

Parker’s victory makes Houston the largest city in the U.S. to elect an openly LGBT mayor.