It’s official – openly gay candidate Craig Lowe is the new mayor of Gainesville.
Lowe won the April 13 election by just 35 votes, triggering an automatic recount which was done on April 16. That recount showed Lowe with 6,110 votes. His opponent, Don March, garnered just 6,068 votes and so Lowe was declared the winner.
Voter turnout was strong, with nearly 16% of registered voters taking part in the run-off election, where Lowe got 40% of the vote and Marsh received 29% of the votes.
The heated race received statewide attention because of anti-gay attacks on Lowe by local religious leaders.
Flyers, online videos and heated advertisements against Lowe and LGBTs in general circulated throughout the community and even on church signs.
Dove Outreach Church is under investigation after it posted a sign in front of the church that read, “No Homo Mayor.” A top church official confirmed that the church had erected the sign. Pastor Wayne Sapp has been posting anti-gay videos online, calling Lowe a “fag” and saying that “Gainesville should not be turned into ‘Homoville.’”
The anti-Lowe camp not only used Lowe’s sexuality against him during the campaign, but also his support of a city ordinance that added transgender people to the city’s equal protection law. The group posted fliers declaring that the ordinance should be repealed because it allowed “predators and men” to legally enter women’s restrooms.
March had said that if he were elected, he would try to repeal the ordinance, which voters declined to do last fall.
