Leading a delegation of some 60 Houstonians to the city, Mayor Annise Parker today praised Shanghai, China as a welcoming and open to its LGBT citizens, a stance she said is good for business.

“Shanghainese and Houstonians are similar. They care about what you do, not who you are,” Parker said during  Houston Day at the USA Pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo, according to Xinhua.

“To boost development, a city needs to be open to a full range of people, especially the innovative ones who break barriers, like people of the gay community,” Parker said.

Parker, who was elected mayor in December, is on her first international trip promoting Houston’s business community.  She announced her team was working with air carriers to establish new direct routes between Houston and Shanghai.

Houston is the largest city in the U.S. to elect an openly LGBT mayor, and Paris, Berlin and Zurich, Switzerland are among major international cities with out mayors.

This year openly gay and lesbian candidates are serious contenders to be elected mayor in Oakland, Calif., and Lexington, Kentucky.

Houston Mayor Annise Parker joined the likes of Nancy Pelosi, Glenn Beck, and Barack Obama in the “Leaders” section of The 2010 TIME 100, an annual listing of the most influential people of the year.

Described as a “demure, pearl-wearing lesbian businesswoman with three kids and a longtime partner,” Parker is credited for her savvy in addressing Houston’s $100 million budget shortfall that she’s inherited upon taking office.

“I feel like a mom planning a family budget,” she says. “We’re going to make sure we still have plenty of healthy vegetables, but we might have to cut back on dessert for a while.”

Photo by Jeff Wilson, TIME

Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), speaking to some 700 supporters of the Victory Fund at the group’s annual fundraising brunch in Washington yesterday, said the LGBT community will win full equality in America, but not unless we keep fighting hard for it.

“We’re gonna win this battle, there’s no question. … I know people are frustrated, ‘Well, we’re always fighting.’ Of course we’re always fighting, because we have taken on a major task: eradicating one of the great prejudices of human history.  So, of course, we’re going to keep fighting until it’s all over,” said Frank.

Frank also urged the community to focus on politics as a means to achieve their goals, and said helping to elect more openly LGBT candidates is an effective way to change the minds that still need to be changed.

“Legislating is a very personal business.  Prejudice is literally ignorance. It is people prejudging based on a stereotype that substitutes for reality. Reality undermines that. So, the more they see us, the better it is,” Frank said.

Also appearing at the brunch yesterday, Houston Mayor Annise Parker urged attendees to support local LGBT candidates for offices such as city council and school board, explaining that’s how most higher-profile elected officials get their start in politics.

Read more about the event at Metro Weekly.

Houston Mayor Annise Parker has drawn the wrath of a group known as the Houston Area Pastors Council, the same one that fought to defeat her mayoral campaign on the grounds that she is openly lesbian.  Parker’s opponent, Gene Locke, condemned the group during the campaign.

The Council is angry about an executive order issued by Parker on March 25 that bans discrimination in city employment based on, among other things, sexual orientation and gender identity.  The mayor’s office responded in a statement, “We are simply codifying, putting in writing, what has been the city’s long standing practice; we do not discriminate.”

Like other anti-LGBT groups, the Council has specifically raised the specter of transgender individuals using public restrooms.  The issue is often used as an emotional wedge by opponents trying to roll back non-discrimination laws.  They of course want voters to imagine men menacing women in public restrooms.

Last year, when the Massachusetts state legislature was considering a transgender equality bill, openly gay State Rep. Carl Sciortino sought to explain the issue, saying, “What [the bill] allows for is that every person, including transgender people, can use facilities that are consistent with their gender identity in a safe and private manner.  Anyone that uses a facility to commit a crime or does something indecent can be prosecuted under current laws and this bill does nothing to change that.”

Houston Mayor Annise Parker, an out lesbian, has issued one of the most comprehensive executive orders on LGBT non-discrimination in the country, according to a report in the Dallas Voice.

“The purpose of this Executive Order is to prohibit discrimination and/or retaliation on the basis of sexual orientation and/or gender identity at every level of municipal government, including hiring, contracting and/or access to City facilities and programs/activities,” the order states.

“I felt it important that our written policy reflect what has long been the practice of the city, which is we do not discriminate,” Parker told Dallas Voice.

The Voice reporter noted that Dallas’ non-discrimination policy does not cover gender identity.