Suburban San Diego Mayor Comes Out

"I've considered myself pretty out since about 1999 but I thought this was an occasion to put any questions to rest," Padilla told 365Gay.com.

"In my life since 1999 I've been very honest and open about who I am -- and it's certainly not everything I am, but it's an important part of who I am, and certainly if Pride isn't the venue to be overtly out, I don't know what is.

"It's something that I'm very comfortable with and something that I'm very matter-of-fact about, and I think that's what you saw here tonight."

In February of 2003, shortly after he took office, Padilla talked to this reporter about being gay, and allowed notes to be taken, but on the condition that no story would be published at that time.

"It's not something that I'm prepared to do yet," Padilla said in 2003. "It has nothing to do with my internal perspective on it -- how I feel, my family, friends, associates. I'm very comfortable with being gay and with who I am, and am living my life with integrity. As an elected official, is it something I should share?

"I know some say if you don't openly discuss your personal life, you're somehow closeted or hiding something," he said then. "Because I don't discuss it publicly doesn't necessarily mean I'm in the closet. ... I do live my life out and about, and I don't hide, but I choose not to discuss that with the media. There may come a time when I will.

"My consultants and I did ask ourselves, 'Do you think Chula Vista would elect an openly gay mayor?'" he said in that earlier interview. "Then we asked, 'Would Chula Vista re-elect an openly gay mayor who is doing a good job?' And we thought there was a better chance of that."

Padilla is up for re-election in a June 2006 primary.

Chula Vista, population 200,000, is located immediately south of downtown San Diego on the freeway to Tijuana. Half of the city's residents are Latino, 11 percent are Asian and 5 percent are black. Fifty-three percent of the city's residents speak a language other than English at home.

Twenty-two percent of residents over age 25 have a college degree and 79 percent completed high school, about the same as for the U.S. as a whole. The median family income in 2000 was $50,136, which was $90 more than the U.S. median.

In San Diego itself, 83 percent of residents finished high school, 35 percent have a college degree, and the median family income was $53,060.

San Diego got an openly gay mayor just days before Padilla's public coming out. (story)

City Councilwoman Toni Atkins was selected by the other councilmembers to serve until Dec. 5 after Mayor Dick Murphy resigned amid a pension-funding debacle and Deputy Mayor Michael Zucchet resigned after being convicted of taking bribes from a strip-club owner who wanted a no-touch law repealed. Councilman Ralph Inzunza also was convicted in that case and resigned as well.

A new mayor will be elected in November and sworn in in December. Atkins is not a candidate in that race, and could not enter it at this point because the primary election already took place.

http://www.365gay.com/newscon05/08/080105sdMayor.htm