Wednesday, May 10, 2006
When Mike Rundle announced he was gay during his State of the City Address on April 12, one year ago, he had yet to tell everyone in his immediate family about his sexual orientation, including his father and two of his seven siblings.
“It is with dignity and pride that I acknowledge that I have been Lawrence’s mayor and, in all likelihood, Lawrence’s first gay mayor,” Rundle said in his address.
Rundle has been involved in Lawrence politics as a city commissioner since 1987. He had wanted to serve as an openly gay mayor, but planned to come out to his family first, he said.
After his announcement on April 12, Rundle wrote his father a letter and e-mailed his last two siblings to tell them he was gay, something all of Lawrence already knew. One of Rundle’s main concerns was his brother and sister-in-law’s reaction.
“We have one sibling who is really conservative religiously,” said Kate Van Zandt, one of Rundle’s sisters.
But, she said, not one of her family members would stop loving another because he or she was gay. Van Zandt was one of the first of the siblings Rundle told he was gay. It was not long before Christmas.
“He said he wanted to give me an early Christmas present. ’Actually, I want to give myself an early present,’” she recalled her brother saying. “He wanted to be who he was and not hide anything.”
To Rundle’s relief, his brother and sister-in-law’s reaction was positive. In fact his brother’s nephew had come out months before.
After his announcement, media outlets from in and out of state wanted a word with Rundle. Radio stations from Kansas to California called to talk to him. He walked in gay pride parades in Wichita and Lawrence and even gave speeches on his personal story.
“I became a focal point for a lot of people who were interested in equal rights,” he said.
At one point though, some people thought Rundle’s sexual orientation could be used against him. Rumors were whispered in Lawrence about Rundle being gay as he ran for city commissioner in 2003. These “whisper campaigns,” as Rundle called them, had little effect on the election results. Rundle was re-elected as a city commissioner with the highest number of votes of the six candidates running for positions on the city commission. Rundle was later appointed vice mayor in 2003, and then mayor in April 2004.
“People look at how you run the city,” he said. “That’s more important than your private life.”
Even if Rundle had served openly as Lawrence’s first gay mayor, he said it wouldn’t have made a difference on how he chose to use his time as mayor. He said this was mainly because so much came up at the city commission.
City commissioners could easily work about 40 hours per week on city issues, something Rundle said he sometimes had to do along with his other job as a head cashier at The Community Mercantile. As a cashier, he works about 40 hours per week. Between the two jobs and Rundle’s personal life, he often feels pressed for time, he said.
If Rundle had to decide now whether he wanted to run for re-election in 2007, he said his answer was yes. Scheduling in personal time weighs on him, though. Rundle has personal goals for himself outside the city commission including spending more time with his father, who is more than 80 years old.
“I don’t have forever to spend with him,” Rundle said.
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