Amanda Kim Stairrett/KANSAN

Mike Rundle, Lawrence city commissioner, listens to a city resident complain about roundabouts at last night's city commission meeting in City Hall. Rundle announced he was gay at last week's meeting. He said his coming out seemed more life-changing to citizens than to himself.

People keep telling Mike Rundle that he must feel as though a great weight is off his shoulders. But the city commissioner and former mayor said he didn’t feel that way. He announced he was gay because he had no secrets to keep.

“When people say that, I imagine a big slab of concrete or something on my shoulders, but I didn’t feel like that,” Rundle said. “I wasn’t ashamed of being gay and I didn’t think it had to be out there for me to be accepted.”

During his State of the City Address last week, Rundle, 51, announced for the first time publicly that he was gay.

Since the meeting, Rundle has received many e-mails and phone messages from people saying they were proud of his announcement.

“People have responded with extreme enthusiasm,” Rundle said. “To use the popular expression: It’s been a trip.”

Rundle, who also works as a shift manager at the Community Mercantile Co-op, said he had not publicly announced his sexuality because he was in the process of coming out to his family.

But on the night before his State of the City Address at City Call, Rundle made an “intuitive and organic” decision to announce that he was proud of serving as Lawrence’s first known gay mayor.

Rundle attended the University of Kansas from 1971 to 1976 and earned a bachelor’s degree in human development and family life.

He said he never told others he was gay in college, adding that he was reserved about his sexuality. There were no gay and lesbian organizations like Queers and Allies, he said.

“I was pretty closed,” Rundle said. “Acceptance was just surfacing at that time.”

His decision to announce he was gay was prompted by “whisper campaigns” about his sexuality. Rundle said people had made derogatory comments about him in past elections. After voters passed a state constitutional amendment prohibiting gay marriage, he felt he needed to make a statement, he said.

“I wanted to say I’m gay, it’s

not a secret and I’m not ashamed,” Rundle said.

After the announcement, Rundle said he was touched by people’s positive responses. But one thing still weighed on his mind.

Though he told other family members, Rundle hadn’t told his father, stepmother or three of his seven siblings that he was gay before the announcement.

Last Friday, he sent an e-mail to most of his family members. He sent a letter to his father.

“He’s behind me all the way,” Rundle said.

Rundle said he no longer felt reserved with his family.

“It’s given me a sort of buoyancy,” Rundle said. “After having worked through all the identity issues, I thought I was sort of flying free. But I didn’t realize how much bigger flying free was.”

— Edited by Kim Sweet Rubenstein

not a secret and I’m not ashamed,” Rundle said.

After the announcement, Rundle said he was touched by people’s positive responses. But one thing still weighed on his mind.

Though he told other family members, Rundle hadn’t told his father, stepmother or three of his seven siblings that he was gay before the announcement.

Last Friday, he sent an e-mail to most of his family members. He sent a letter to his father.

“He’s behind me all the way,” Rundle said.

Rundle said he no longer felt reserved with his family.

“It’s given me a sort of buoyancy,” Rundle said. “After having worked through all the identity issues, I thought I was sort of flying free. But I didn’t realize how much bigger flying free was.”