Randy Bishop featured in article on gay elected officials

Tue, Feb 5th 2008, 15:23

From the Home News Tribune: 

Neptune is expected to name its first openly gay mayor today. Township Committeeman Randy Bishop, the owner of an inn in Ocean Grove, won a second term on the Township Committee last fall. Now he is due to be elevated to the mayoral post by his fellow committee members. He would become the second openly gay mayor in New Jersey and the third in its history. The other openly gay mayor to currently serve, Maywood's Tim Eustace, was elected by popular vote in November.

Bishop's likely ascension has made headlines across the region, as have the elections of other openly gay politicians in recent years. And gay advocacy groups seem delighted by the attention; Steven Goldstein, chairman of Garden State Equality, called Bishop's election "extraordinarily important. It will encourage other lesbian and gay people to run for office, and further encourage politicians who are lesbian and gay but not open about it to be open about it."

There is probably something to Goldstein's fervor.

And yet Bishop himself seems somewhat nonplussed by the attention. After all, he told a reporter, "It really is a small piece of what makes me who I am."

Bishop's outlook undoubtedly has been shaped by his experiences as a gay man, much as any of us who have ever been a minority of any kind have found ourselves reassessing accepted norms. But he is adamant that it does not define him or his politics.

"I guess it's still an oddity for openly gay people to be in elected politics," Bishop said in an interview with Gannett New Jersey. "The same as for years it was probably true of African-Americans, of people of the Latino cultures, of Asian cultures. It's the oddity because today it's so few. Hopefully, it will come to the point where people aren't looked at as though they are in a box, but by what they bring to the table."

We couldn't have said it better. What we really ought to be longing for is a day when Randy Bishop is sworn in as mayor and no one pauses to note his sexuality.