First Openly Gay Elected Official -- in SC

There are so many bizarre things to talk about in this story:

Guest blogger Nick Shalosky is Secretary of the South Carolina Stonewall Democrats. He is the first openly-gay elected official in South Carolina. At the age of 21, Shalosky was elected with 22 votes to the Charleston County District 20 Constituent School Board with a write-in campaign primarily organized through Facebook. He is a junior at the College of Charleston.

WOW. An openly gay elected official in my homestate and in my hometown. You know, there was an open lesbian running in that same district for the US House that lost by very little. I will say this: AFFA and the SCEC are great organizations, though a little out of touch with the rest of the world (when I offered to help with future organizing, they said "no, we can do it on our own"). I think this is kind of a major blow to them because they, no doubt, did not realize this was happening. But that is besides the point...

WOW. An unnamed, no-party candidate got elected to public office. Now, there was no one he was running against, and it only took 22 votes for him to be boosted into office, but that's still huge. Of course, the problem is that, now he's getting all of this attention, no doubt someone is going to want to take him down next go-round. Never underestimate the power of the fundamentalists. I wonder if he'll survive the next roung. But that is besides the point...

WOW. A 21-year-old used social media to get elected to public office! Not that there was much competition, and he was just a write-in candidate, and, really, 22 votes was all he could muster? I have 700+ friends on Facebook, I think I could scrounge up a few more than that. But that's besides the point...

WOW. Wait, so what is the point?

The point is this: Mr. Shalosky, congratulations. You have officially become my new hero, doing something that no one else has and breaking ground. It's unbelievable and wonderful. Thank you.

I just hope my snarkiness and bitchiness are wrong, and you serve the county well (I was a product of that school system, so, yea...), and you become successful.

Because, as we all know, no one listens to me on these sort of things.

Still, CONGRATULATIONS! :-) In a state where "first openly gay student body president" made front page news, this is no small feat.