Republican Mike Gin on Tuesday night
lost his bid to represent the people of California's 36th
congressional district and become the first married gay congressman.
Gin placed fourth behind Los Angeles
City Council member Janice Hahn, California Secretary of State Debra
Bowen and anti-war activist Marcy Winograd.
The special election was the first race
to use California's new non-partisan primary system.
Since no candidate won 50 percent of
the vote, a runoff election between top vote-getters Hahn and Bowen
will take place on July 12.
The 48-year-old mayor of Redondo Beach,
California would have become Congress' first openly gay and married
member.
Gin has been with his partner, animator
Christopher Kreider, 50, for over 16 years. The couple married on
November 1, 2008 – just days before voters approved gay marriage
ban Proposition 8, which overturned a Supreme Court ruling legalizing
gay nuptials in the state – at the Redondo Beach Historic “Morrell
House.”
R. Clarke Cooper, the executive
director of gay GOP group Log Cabin Republicans, urged the gay
community to back similar candidates.
“Having gay Republicans such as Mike
Gin run for office furthers advocacy for freedom while bolstering
conservative principles of individual liberty and individual
responsibility,” Cooper
told gay weekly The
Washington Blade. “The LGBT community would be served well
to recognize and support such openly gay conservative candidates.”
Last November, Congressman David
Cicilline of Rhode Island became the latest openly gay House member,
joining Representatives Barney Frank of Massachusetts, Tammy Baldwin
of Wisconsin and Jared Polis of Colorado.
Palm Springs Mayor Steve Pougnet
challenged Republican Representative Mary Bono Mack last fall for her
seat, becoming the first openly gay married man to run for Congress.