Why Aren't There Any Straight, White, Christian Dudes in the Senate Race?

Did you hear openly gay North Miami Mayor Kevin Burns running for Senate? Silly gays, you can't even get married or adopt children. What makes you think you can be Senator? Actually, it's kind of sad that a he's become the "Gay candidate," and he wants to clear that up. The St. Pete...

By Kyle Munzenrieder

March 12, 2009

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Did you hear openly gay North Miami Mayor Kevin Burns running for Senate? Silly gays, you can't even get married or adopt children. What makes you think you can be Senator?

Actually, it's kind of sad that a he's become the "Gay candidate," and he wants to clear that up. The St. Pete Times' political editor Adam Smith sat down with the Mayor and pulled out a "So, you're a gay? Eh?" question.

"Just like we're not going to refer to Mr. Meek as the Black candidate and Dan Gelber as the Jewish candidate, It's unfair to say that I'm the gay candidate. I just happen to be the mayor of a city running for the US Senate that happens to be gay," replied Burns.

Of course to be fair to Smith, he asked the "so, no one has ever heard of you before, do you really think you can win?" question first.

But, it brings up an interesting point: of all the announced candidates who actually have a shot -- Gelber, Meek, Burns and Republican Marco Rubio -- not a single one of them is a straight, Christian non-Hispanic. Of course, that might change if married, white, Methodist Charlie Crist enters the race.

A few questions to discuss amongst yourself: Have we officially entered some sort of post-labels politics here in Florida? Where are the lady candidates? What do you think it would take for Florida to elect and openly gay person to a state wide office?

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