The election of openly gay public officials in American communities

As a newly emergent political minority, lesbians and gay men have begun to seek representation in political office, particularly at the local level. U sing a purposeful sample of 126 cities and counties, the authors explore op enly gay candidacies for, and election to, public office in the early 1990s . They employed four theoretical models-urbanism/social diversity, resource mobilization, political opportunity structure, and communal protest-that h ave been useful in explaining African-American, Latino, and female electora l success. The nature and pattern of electoral activities of lesbians and g ay men are similar to those of other disadvantaged minorities.