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| Ohio Governor-elect Ted Strickland |
Ohio Governor-elect Ted Strickland named the stateís first openly gay agency director, an appointment that has advocates in the Midwest cheering.
According to the Associated Press, the appointment of Columbus City Councilwoman Mary Jo Hudson, an out lesbian, as insurance director follows a 2004 election in which religious conservatives in the state successfully advanced an anti-gay marriage ballot initiative that helped bring out the voters that swung the state for President Bush.
Gay-rights group Equality Ohio lauded the appointment, reports the AP.
"Gov.-elect Strickland made a promise to voters to appoint a cabinet that looks like all of Ohio," executive director Lynne Bowman said in a media statement. "Today, he has taken a historic step in recognizing the contributions and qualifications of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Ohioans."
On City Council, Hudson chairs the Jobs and Economic Development Committee. She is an attorney at Columbus law firm Bailey Cavalieri.
According to the Chillicothe Gazette, from 1989 to 1996, Hudson was a deputy liquidator and special services attorney for the Ohio Department of Insurance and Office of the Ohio Insurance Liquidator.
"This is the first concrete demonstration that the tone in the Statehouse has already begun to change," Bo Shuff, Equality Ohio's education and policy director, said in the statement to the media. "We now know for certain that the conversation about issues that matter to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Ohioans can take place."
Strickland also appointed Helen Jones-Kelley, who runs the Montgomery County Department of Jobs and Family Services, to lead the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.
The Chillicothe Gazette reports that Jones-Kelley, an attorney, served more than a decade as executive director of the Montgomery County Children Service Department. When the department merged with the county's Jobs and Family Services department earlier this year, she was named director of the new merged agency.
Both appointments are subject to Ohio Senate approval.
