This is the first election year since having my kid two decades ago that I have been able to truly follow the campaigns and have been excited about the cadidates. I caucused and became a county delegate. I went to the county convention and became a state alternate. I went to the state convention and got bumped up to delegate. I’ve learned more through the intimate journey of these past few months of participatory democracy than I had in all my years of school and media overload combined.
It was an honor to help choose delegates to go on to the Democratic National Convention happening in Denver this week. I was equally excited to learn that one of the delegates we voted in, Steve Rivas, was also on Stonewall’s list of 365 openly LGBT delegates to serve this year. If you follow this sort of thing, you know that number is unprecedented. It’s truly an exciting time.
This past weekend, I tracked Rivas down. He returned my call as he was on the road to Denver. I felt like Santa asking Rudolph to fly his sleigh: Steve, would you please consider blogging about your adventures for Gay Place? He accepted, and you can follow his intimate journeys through participatory democracy online: austinchronicle.com/gayplaceblog.
This article appears in August 29 • 2008.