You can’t help but pinch the cheeks of Mary Norwood and give her a hug for trying. The earnest, gay-loving politician without an office tried to jumpstart her public service again, but was flatly denied. Why? She’s not gay enough.
Yes, in a bit of job bias that LGBT folks can only relish on the few occasions it actually happens, the LGBT advisory board for the Atlanta Police Department swatted down Norwood’s effort to fill an empty seat on the nine-person panel. It’s supposed to go to a gay.
Still up for the slot, though, is Atlanta’s favorite underemployed lesbian Melissa Carter (photo right), who is plenty gay enough; Charlie Stadtlander, who learned a thing or two about crime recently; and Matthew Robison, an unknown applicant except to students at Georgia State, where he’s an assistant dean.
The panel, still stuck in its Eagle sludge, couldn’t muster enough votes during its meeting on Monday to break a tie over who to pick for the empty seat, according to the GA Voice.
With Norwood, the political undertones would prove fun to watch. Norwood, of course, lost to Mayor Kasim Reed by a few hundred votes in a tight runoff in December 2009. The police panel has been prodding the mayor and police on the Eagle raid. Its chair, Glen Paul Freedman, backed Reed in the mayor’s race. Stadtlander backed Norwood, who also recently popped up at the Fenuxe Ice Party earlier this month (photo left).
But it won’t be happening. So Norwood is left hugging drag queens, like Mary Edith Pitts (photo center); Carter is left, well, underemployed; and board member Betty Couvertier is still cranky.
