You win some, you're Newsom
For providing me with an opportunity, at (then) age 29, to experience a basic American event that most of my straight friends already know: bearing witness as two of my best friends join together in holy matrimony - my award for enabler of the year goes to San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom.
At the same time, my award best "photo-illustration" of a newsmaker goes to Glex Wexler of Time Magazine for a portrait of Newsom (below) that wears the clothes and colors of sunny-day Christian conservatism in a cheekily subversive way. Kinda like Newsom himself - so white, so clean cut, so entrepreneureal, so...liberal.
Say what you want about the post-election "Nader Effect" backlash toward gay rights, Newsom championed a progressive cause in times of retrograde. So he put San Francisco squarly on the map for some, and in the crosshairs for others. What else is new?
The eyes and smiles and stronger homes of newly married couples tell the real story (nullification be damned).
As for the face of a possible Democratic future? We shall see - Reagan and Nixon notwithstanding, California is famous for unleashing paper tigers on the political world (there was a time not so long ago when publications like Newsweek said, with a straight face, that deposed Governor Gray Davis had a clear shot at the White House one day). But consider this - ask most Americans who the mayor of San Francisco is, they'll tell you, often without hesitating - Gavin Newsom. Ask them who the mayor of New York City, you're as liable to get Rudy Giuliani, George Pataki, and even Bernie Kerik as potential answers before you get to a correct response. Mayor of Los Angeles? Forget it.
Democratic or not, Gavin Newsom's place at the political table seems, for now, assured.
Cake, anyone?
At the same time, my award best "photo-illustration" of a newsmaker goes to Glex Wexler of Time Magazine for a portrait of Newsom (below) that wears the clothes and colors of sunny-day Christian conservatism in a cheekily subversive way. Kinda like Newsom himself - so white, so clean cut, so entrepreneureal, so...liberal.
Say what you want about the post-election "Nader Effect" backlash toward gay rights, Newsom championed a progressive cause in times of retrograde. So he put San Francisco squarly on the map for some, and in the crosshairs for others. What else is new?
The eyes and smiles and stronger homes of newly married couples tell the real story (nullification be damned).
As for the face of a possible Democratic future? We shall see - Reagan and Nixon notwithstanding, California is famous for unleashing paper tigers on the political world (there was a time not so long ago when publications like Newsweek said, with a straight face, that deposed Governor Gray Davis had a clear shot at the White House one day). But consider this - ask most Americans who the mayor of San Francisco is, they'll tell you, often without hesitating - Gavin Newsom. Ask them who the mayor of New York City, you're as liable to get Rudy Giuliani, George Pataki, and even Bernie Kerik as potential answers before you get to a correct response. Mayor of Los Angeles? Forget it.
Democratic or not, Gavin Newsom's place at the political table seems, for now, assured.
Cake, anyone?
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