Posted on 03/30/2006 10:19:26 AM PST by SmithL
West Sacramento Mayor Christopher Cabaldon has anxiously kept his sexual orientation a secret his entire political career.
He broke his silence on the subject Wednesday night at the annual State of the City dinner at West Sacramento City Hall.
"The pressure and the stigma and sometimes the all too casual bigotry in this town made it painfully clear when I first ran for office that I could either serve this community or I could be a gay man. But I could not be both," Cabaldon said.
His disclosure - planned well in advance - concluded a speech focusing on levees, "walkable" communities and schools. After celebrating the accomplishments of the city and discussing the future, he disclosed that he was gay.
Cabaldon said he decided to disclose he's gay to make it easier for other gays and lesbians wrestling with making their sexual orientation public.
In an interview this week, Cabaldon said when he began his political career, he thought he couldn't disclose the matter. So rather than lead a double life or a secret life, Cabaldon said he decided he couldn't have a personal life.
"Nobody could really out me before because I wasn't dating," said Cabaldon. "I'm still not dating or anything like that."
His heartfelt address Wednesday night brought the crowd of 150 developers, business and political leaders to a standing ovation, some with tears in their eyes.
Developer Bryan Taylor said, "We couldn't be more proud of our mayor."
The 41-year-old mayor's unusual "coming out" will be carried in documentary form on an MTV Networks cable channel featuring gay-themed programming. A crew working for the Logo channel has been shadowing Cabaldon for the better part of a week. The program is expected to air in July.
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
Like I couldn't tell from his pic?............
Is he really gay or just needing votes?
My gaydar was going off scale with red lights and flourishes!.......
In his picture, he does look very...uh...happy.
Yepeeee /sarcasm
West Sac mayor ends his silence - he's gay.
West Sac mayor is proud of his West Sac.
EEEWWWWW!
That was my first thought. lol I doubt anyone is surprised.
Duh. Merely posting that picture on FR would have cleared it up.
Is he a Demorat??
Im so happy for him. zzzzzzzzzzzzz
Who cares? Why do these kind of people have to wave a flag to show their perversions? Why in the world do they have to define themselves as homosexuals? I don't get it. You'd think he'd be ashamed to admit it. I guess not.
With that mug, I don't think anyone needed any confirmation.
Don't know but I doubt he's a Republican! Oh, maybe he's a Log Cabin Republican!
Going the glory hole route, Mr. Mayor?
And the real question is: why should anyone care? If he is doing a good job, it should be no one's business but his.
Happy pills have been known to cause that same grin...
He apparently wants to make it everyone's business.
It's not an "MTV Network channel". It's a SeeBS-Viacommie Network channel (MTV-VH1-M2-Logo-Spike-Nick-Comedy Central-UPN are ALL under Viacom).
So, if he'd concluded his levee / school speech with the revelation "You know, I really enjoy having sexual intercourse with women", would he still have gotten a tearful standing ovation? If not, doesn't that make the audience bigots?
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