wfn.org | No Subject

Openly Lesbian MCC Leader Lupe	Valdez
Elected Sheriff of Dallas County, Texas

Dallas, Texas - On November 2, Lupe Valdez, a  longtime member and lay leader

of Metropolitan Community Churches, was elected  as the new Sheriff of Dallas

County in Texas.  

The Dallas Morning  News describes Lupe's election as a "breakthrough 
victory."  An article  under the headline "Valdez scores historic victory"
notes  
that Lupe is the first woman and the first Hispanic to be elected Dallas 
County 
Sheriff in this heavily Republican county.  

As the	Democratic candidate, Lupe defeated the Republican candidate, who was

a  three-decade veteran of the sheriff's department. Prior to the  election, 
political observers favored her opponent to win the  election. 

A major factor in Lupe's campaign success was her  more than 30 years in 
professional law enforcement.  Lupe has served as a  corrections officer at
both 
county and federal levels, and has many years  experience as a US Special 
Agent. Most recently she was a Senior  Special Agent with the US Department
of 
Homeland Security. Lupe retired  from federal law enforcement in January 2004
to 
run for the office of sheriff in  Dallas County.

Toward the end of the campaign, her opponent raised  Lupe's sexual 
orientation as an issue. Complaining that she had  received an endorsement
and 
contribution from the Victory Fund,  an organization that supports openly gay
or 
lesbian candidates, Lupe's opponent  suggested that she would use the office
of 
sheriff as a platform to advance  issues such as gay/lesbian rights and
same-sex 
marriage. Lupe asserted that  sexual orientation should have no bearing on
the 
race, and would play no role in  how she ran the department.

In a profile on the candidates three  days before the election, the Dallas 
Morning News reported that Lupe is "openly  gay" and stated that "She is a 
member of the Metropolitan Community  Churches, a worldwide fellowship of
Christian 
churches with a special outreach  to gay and lesbian communities."  

In her victory statement to  supporters and the media on Tuesday night, Lupe 
Valdez said, "We are an  international county with people of all ethnic 
groups, rich and poor, gay and	straight, and this is what I want to
represent."

For more than 25  years, Lupe Valdez has been an active lay leader in 
Metropolitan Community	Churches, serving MCC in Dallas as a deacon and board
member 
and serving the  denomination as Director of Security for General Conferences

from 1989 to  2003.  She currently serves as a member of the Moderators  
Nominating Committee and is an active member of Metropolitan Community 
Church of 
Greater Dallas.   

Here is the national news story on  Lupe Valdez' victory from Reuters News 
Service:

Hispanic  Lesbian Makes History in Dallas Poll
Wed Nov 3, 1:32 PM  ET	 U.S. National - Reuters 

DALLAS	(Reuters) - Dallas County, the home to some of the biggest 
conservative  supporters of President Bush, made 
history Tuesday night by electing an  openly gay Hispanic woman as 
its sheriff. 

Democrat Lupe Valdez,  57, pulled off one of the biggest surprises in 
the Texas races by defeating  Republican Danny Chandler. 

"Dallas is an international county," Valdez  told reporters. That is 
what I want to represent." 

She will be the  first Democrat to serve as Dallas County sheriff in 
about 30 years. Valdez	boasted that she has worked on law 
enforcement at a local, national and  international level. 

Valdez was an accomplished officer with U.S.  Customs and other 
federal agencies who also served as a captain in the U.S.  Army 
Reserves. She was endorsed by the main local daily the Dallas  
Morning News, which saw her as the best person to clean up a  scandal-
tainted sheriff's department. 

Her predecessor, Sheriff Jim  Bowles, a Republican, cast a shadow 
over the department when law enforcement  officials said earlier this 
year he was being investigated on suspicion of	receiving kickbacks 
for contracts from a vendor for the county jail.  

Valdez's opponent Chandler was a veteran of the sheriff's department  
and political observers said the scandal may have tainted his 
campaign.  

"We are tickled that Dallas County voters managed to shatter at  
least four different stereotypes in one fell swoop," the Dallas 
Morning  News said in an editorial.  
CONTACT: _info@MCCchurch.org_ (mailto:info@MCCchurch.org)