E. Denise Simmons
The city of Cambridge made history this month when it elected the nation's first African-American, openly gay mayor.
E. Denise Simmons took the reins from Kenneth Reeves, an African-American who was also openly gay.
Simmons, a Cambridge native, has been a community activist for close to three decades, serving on the school committee for nine years and the city council since 2002. The city council elects the mayor.
"I think it's a profound privilege and responsibility," Simmons said. "I have the work of the community ahead of me, but as black woman and someone who is openly gay, I also represent a larger community."
Simmons was the only the second African-American woman to serve on the Cambridge City Council. Boston has yet to elect an African-American woman to its city council.
According to The Victory Fund, an advocacy group that supports gay and *** political candidates, Simmons's election is part of a growing trend that is seeing more out gays and lesbians holding elected office.
"The point with candidates like [Simmons] is not that they're gay activists," said Victory Fund spokesman Denis Dison. "It's that they're like anyone else who hears the call to serve. Ninety-nine percent of them are working on potholes and taxes."
On Simmons's agenda as she begins her term are schools, her long-time passion, and creating "green collar" jobs and an environmentally sustainable economy in Cambridge.
BostonNow.com
http://www.bostonnow.com/news/local/2008/01/30/cambridge-has-a-historic-first
