Gavin Newsom, the very gay-friendly mayor of San Francisco is joining a long list of people trying to succeed Arnold Schwarzenegger as the next Governor of California. Newsom is known nationally for performing gay marriages before they were legal… anywhere.
He also came to national attention over his "whether you like it or not" stance on gay marriage. While that came back to bite him in the ass (see Prop. 8), I think it was a brave moment.
He is presumably the favorite in the gay community, but will likely be competing with former Governor Jerry Brown (who argued to overturn Prop. 8 last month) and Senator Dianne Feinstein (former Mayor of S.F), both of whom are also well known and popular in California.
This should make for an interesting race, and that's just the democratic side.
– Andy
*cough* I think you mean “before they were legal anywhere in the U.S.”. The world doesn’t revolve around us, you know, the Netherlands has had gay marriage since 2001. Belgium was 2003. And the Goodridge ruling had already been issued here in Mass. at the time of the SF weddings, it just hadn’t gone into effect yet.