Texas town elects first ever openly gay mayor
Bruno 'Ralphy' Lozano won with 62 per cent of the vote on Saturday
By Steve Brown
A Texas town has elected their first openly gay mayor.
On Saturday (May 5) Del Rio elected Bruno ‘Ralphy’ Lozano, an Air Force veteran, as their new mayor with 62 per cent of the vote.
Lozano, 35, is the youngest mayor of the town and the first openly gay elected official in Del Rio and served as the security law enforcement officer in the Air Force during the ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ period.
It was during this period that he decided not to continue in the military.
While speaking to Into More, Lozano said: “I am not ashamed of who I am, so I chose not to reenlist.
“I kept going. I moved on with my life.”
After leaving the Air Force, Lozano became an activist to help clean the town’s local waterways and last year, he marched in the veteran’s parade donning a pair of high heels.
The new mayor of the town – which has a population of more than 40,000 – revealed that gay people moved away from the state in the 1990s but are now returning to their home towns.
He said: “In the 90s and 2000s, [LGBT+ people] started moving away to safe zones in cities like Lakeview in Chicago, Chelsea in New York, or the Castro in San Francisco.
“But now we’ve started to go back to our communities and be part of it. I think it’s such an amazing opportunity to show that we are equal.”
Texas is known for being one of the most conservative states in the US meaning the election makes a bold statement.