Openly gay former news anchor Charles
Pugh will lead Detroit City Council, the Detroit Free Press
reported.
Pugh was the top vote-getter in
Tuesday's city council election and as such will be council
president.
“This is unbelievable,” Pugh told
the paper. “It means Detroit has really wanted change for a very
long time.”
The thirty-seven-year-old,
self-proclaimed “Detroitaholic” traded in an anchor post at Fox
2, where he first announced his sexuality on air in 2004, to pursue
politics.
After coming out, Pugh's celebrity has
only increased. During the campaign he acknowledged that being gay
added a wrinkle to his candidacy but added that he believed most
Detroiters would give him a fair shake.
“I think there will be people who
grumble about it and some people who may stay away from voting for me
because of that, but I think Detroiters already know me,” Pugh said
last month. “I believe Detroiters are open-minded, hardworking
people who really do accept people who are different.”
“I'm focused on bringing a level of
class and dignity and respect for the job that Detroiters want,”
Pugh added.
Pugh is the first openly gay person to
hold elected office in Detroit, a city hit hard by the decline of the
automobile industry. A win for the Michigan native looked certain
after he captured the most votes during an August primary. But
last-minute negative publicity about his foreclosure woes threatened
to derail his candidacy. Detroit Free Press editors withdrew
their endorsement after the paper reported that Pugh was facing the
loss of his home.
Pugh was raised by his grandmother
after his mother's murder in 1974 at the age of 3 and his father's
suicide four years later. Despite such devastating tragedy, Pugh
went on to graduate from the University of Missouri's School of
Journalism on an academic scholarship.