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.

As we close out Women’s History Month, the Victory Fund today released this video salute to the women trailblazers who’ve been at the forefront of LGBT electoral politics.  For more information, go here.

Though many helped achieve full marriage equality in the District of Columbia, openly gay D.C. City Councilman David Catania deserves special recognition for helming a strategy that won the support of an overwhelming majority of his council colleagues, the city’s mayor and even Congressional leaders.  The Victory Fund will honor Catania at its 10th annual Champagne Brunch on Sunday, April 18th, at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington.  Special guest speakers at the event include Congressman Barney Frank and Houston Mayor Annise Parker.

The room is about 75% sold, and tickets are going fast.  Reserve yours today here.  All proceeds benefit the Victory Fund, which works to change politics in America by electing openly LGBT candidates to public office at all levels of government.

Houston Mayor Annise Parker spoke directly to the LGBT community during her inaugural address before thousands at a downtown performing arts center this morning.  Parker’s election December 13th made Houston the largest city in the U.S. to elect an openly LGBT mayor.  Parker spoke passionately about the diversity of Houston and its future, but her address turned personal when she told attendees she wanted to speak directly to the LGBT community:

“I understand what this day means to you.  I can feel your excitement and your joy, but I can also feel your apprehension and your longing for acceptance.  I will gladly carry you forward, but today is simply one day toward a tomorrow of greater justice.  And when the time comes I will gladly pass the torch to the next in waiting, and I will cheer for them as you do for me.  Your bravery in the face of threats, your bravery in the face of insults sustains me.  We will support each other.

Do not fear to dream big dreams.  Bring your whole self to everything you do.  Face the world with dignity and integrity.  I promise you, the pain is worth the reward.”

In light of the election of Annise Parker as mayor of Houston, the Southern Political Report analyzes the growth in the number of openly LGBT officeholders in the South, concluding, “Parker…is only part of the story of what has been happening, almost unnoticed, across the South as well as the nation in the past decade or so as hundreds of politically active gay men and lesbians have entered politics and started winning elections in places that weren’t suppose to be hospitable to their candidacies.”

Citing Victory Fund statistics, SPR lists candidates that have been elected in some surprising places in recent years:

Openly gay politicians have won seats in the legislatures in Alabama (state Rep. Patricia Todd), Arkansas (state Rep. Kathy Webb), Georgia (state Rep. Karla Drenner), North Carolina (state Sen. Julia Boseman), Oklahoma (state Rep. Al McAffrey), and Virginia (state Rep. Adam Ebbin). Several prominent gay lawmakers have retired from Southern legislatures, including former state Rep. Glen Maxey in Texas, and former state Sen. Ernesto Scorsone in Kentucky. All are Democrats and represent urban areas, where gay voters often make up a significant portion of the electorate.

…

(T)he increasing presence of gay officeholders as part of the South’s political fabric has already had an impact. The South’s wide network of gay political activists was part of the coalitions that helped Barack Obama and other Democrats win office last year. Lobbying by gay groups, aided by the presence of a gay lawmaker, have resulted in some pro-gay laws, including hate crime laws that cover gay people as well as other minorities, and bans on anti-gay hiring discrimination by city and county governments. At least one study has shown that having even one openly gay member of a governing body provides a more hospitable reception for pro-gay proposals.

Politico published an analysis of what led to Annise Parker’s victory in Houston, a victory which may tie into a larger shift in identity politics as demonstrated by Barack Obama’s presidential victory in 2008.  While Parker’s sexuality did not hinder her as a candidate, and may have even helped, Politico finds the achievement important in a national context:

(T)he election of an out lesbian who made her name initially as a gay-rights activist, one who embraced her partner on stage on election night, nevertheless reveals a breakthrough in the country’s march toward what could be called either tolerance or just plain apathy toward homosexuality.

Indeed, save for an 11th-hour flurry of mailers paid for by allies of Parker’s opponent, Gene Locke, her sexual orientation mattered little in a race dominated by conventional municipal issues such as crime, jobs and education. What was remarkable about the contest was just how unremarkable the voters found it that Parker was a lesbian.

Longtime observers and participants in Houston politics agreed that, if anything, the attacks on Parker hurt her rival.

Stephen Klinerberg, a sociology professor at Rice University, summarized the election: “In the end, it was better to be a homosexual than a lobbyist.”