Chain Males : Part 2

We’ve looked at femalemayors. We’ve looked at Lord Mayors. Now let’s have a look at male mayors, and there have been many gay, bisexual or male-identifying mayors. In fact, I’ve had to split them into several groups. I’ll deal with British, European and US male mayors in the coming months. Today we’ll look at the known male mayors from our community from the rest of the world.

Below is a world map with the cities and municipalities in which gay/bisexual men have served as mayor. I have chosen not to include those who were Deputy or Vice Mayor, but have included one Municipal President, which is a mayoral equivalent. On the map I’ve used official logos, flags or coats of arms of the municipalities though I need to say something about the arms of Wanganui, New Zealand. The arms I’ve shown is the one used by the city unofficially from 1905 and were in use when Charles Mackay served as mayor. It is the arms of the Petre family after whom the city was originally named. An official coat of arms for Wanganui city was granted in 1955.

As with the previous mayoral lists there are no lgbt mayors known to have served in Africa.

Here is the list of mayors :

CANADA

Réal Ménard (b.1962), Mayor of Mercier-Hochelaga-Maisonneuve since 2010.

Glen Murray (b.1957), Mayor of Winnipeg 1998-2004.
Ted Nebbeling (1944-2009), Mayor of Whistler 1990-96.
Maurice Richard (b.1946), Mayor of Becancour 1976-85, 1995-2013.

CHILE
Claudio Arriagada (b.1955); Mayor of La Granja 1992-2012.

EL SALVADOR
Hugo Salinas (b.1963), Mayor of Intipucá 2009-12.

MEXICO
Benjamin Medrano Quezada (b.1966), Municipal President of Fresnillo 2013-15.

PHILIPPINES
Arnold James Ysidoro, Mayor of Leyte City 1998-2004, and since 2010.

AUSTRALIA
John Fowler (b.1954), Mayor of South Sydney 2000-4.
Julian Hill (b.1973), Mayor of Port Philip 2000-2.
John Hyde (b.1957), Mayor of Vincent 1999-2001.
Ralph McLean (1957-2010), Mayor of Fitzroy 1984-5.
Bruce Notley-Smith (b.1964), Mayor of Randwick 2007-9.

NEW ZEALAND
Charles Mackay (1878-1929), Mayor of Wanganui 1906-20.

The earliest openly gay mayor on the list is the last-named Charles Mackay, although to be fair he was outed during the legal case that followed his shooting of a blackmailer. The blackmailer was seriously wounded, and Mackay was convicted of attempted murder. He was removed from his mayoral office and spent 18 months in jail.

The earliest mayor to be openly gay when elected to office was another antipodean, Ralph McLean of Fitzroy, Victoria, Australia in 1984. Of all the others on the list only Claudio Arriagada, Mayor of La Granja in Chile, was not openly gay during his term of office. He came out the year afterwards.

As well as Charles Mackay of Wanganui the other mayors have points of interest. Here are a few. While was Réal Ménard was MP for Hochelega he competed at the 1st World Outgames in 2006 winning a silver medal in wrestling; Ted Nebbeling was the Canadian Minister of State for the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Winter Games; Glen Murray and his partner were the subjects of a 1992 documentary film about gay parents and adoption; Claudio Arriagada was twice President of the Chilean Association of Municipalities, the mayor’s mayor or super-mayor, you could say; Hugo Salinas had lived in the USA since 1993 and hadn’t set foot in his native El Salvador until he began his successful mayoral campaign, which he began just a stone’s through from the White House. All of our mayors have stories to tell, as do all of those I’ve listed in the past and will list in future articles.

I’ll finish by going back to my previous “Chain Males” article on Lord Mayors. With all the research and activity going on before and after the UK General Election in June one piece of news slipped past me. In May the City of Westminster appointed as openly gay man as its new Lord Mayor, Councillor Ian Adams. That makes him the 6th lgbt Lord Mayor in the UK and the second in Westminster. Westminster had the first known lgbt Lord Mayor in the UK, Robert Davis in 1996, though he wasn’t openly gay at the time.

The next Chain Males article will feature the gay and bisexual mayors in the USA.