Kalamazoo elects first openly gay state rep
KALAMAZOO, Mich. (WOOD) Voters in the 60th District, which encompasses the City of Kalamazoo cheap patagonia pulloversand Kalamazoo Township, overwhelmingly elected Jon Hoadley Tuesday to the Michigan House of Representatives. He will be the region first openly gay representative.
Hoadley is the president and owner of Badlands Strategies, progressive public affairs firm specializing in coalition management, fundraising, donor advising and advocacy campaigns. According to his website, he has worked with labor groups, women rights groups and other progressive organizations to tell their stories.
always been interested in public service, so the idea of running for office someday was something that was on my mind, said Hoadley. the opportunity with so many choices and bigpatagonia chile luxury hotels decisions coming open in 2014patagonia guide jacket and coats1, [that] really inspired me to get in the race. also said he didn think twice about runpatagonia down sweater washing instructionsning as an openly gay man.
me, I always want to be open and honest about my life, and I think voters and the people who we representing want authentic politicians, he said.
Hoadley, a Democrat, won by a large margin over his Republican opponent he had 70% of the vote to Mike Perrin 30%.
was really honored to win so many votes here in the 60th District. We worked really hard and we knocked on a lot of doors, said Hoadley. was patagonia outlet store renothrilled that people knew about patagonia outlet store reno nevadathis part of my life and they took it as one of the positive setpatagonia better sweater peacoat closeouts of experiences that I can bring to the office, so it was exciting we didn see the anti gay rhetoric that sometimes crops up. even the margin of his victory is something he hopes to address when he reaches Lansing.
was an incredible margin, but ultimately we are seeing a lot of those type of lopsidepatagonia guide jacket and coats2dwomen's dark blue patagonia nylon full side zipper ski victories across Michigan and so I think this is rpatagonia jackets on sale for cheap up to 65eally about starting a conversation to make sure everyone has fair representation across the state of Michigan, said Hoadley. challenges facing Mpatagonia guide jacket and coats0ichigan aren Democrpatagonia guide jacket and coats3atic problems or Republican problems, and so when we have predominantly Democratic districts or predominantly Republican districts, maybe it takes us off of the conversations we need to be having about what best forpatagonia better sweater green women all of Michigan. gay rights are obviously important to Hoadley and to many of his friends and family members, he said they are by no means the only thing he plans to tackle at the state capitol.
think it interesting that over the next month, we are going to see a lot of conversation about amending the Elliott Larsen [Civil Rights] Act to make sure that no one is fired or denied housing because of who they are, said Hoadley. excited to see that hopefully we can make progress on these issues, and then tackle the other things that we all care about, like fixing the roads and making sure we have education today and tomorrow.
Equal rights and women access to health care are also major issues he hopes to address in the legislature.
Hoadley said he knows that will take a bipartisan effort and said he excited about the prospect of stretching his hand across the aisle and making real progress. In fact, he said the first thing he plans to do on day patagonia guide jacket and coatsone is introduce himself to everyone and starting building relationships.
we are trying to build a civil Michigan that can tackle adult problem like adults, that means you work with people even if you don agree with them on every issue. And if you doing that in a polite and respectful way, I think you can really build a bridge and some commonality to tackle these things together, Hoadley said.
One other openly gay person, Chris Kolb, has previously served in the state legislature, representing Ann Arbor from 2001 to 2006.
Also elected to the state House Tuesday night was openly gay candidate Jeremy Moss will represent the 35th District seat, which covers the Southfield area on the east side of the state.
