'An extraordinary opportunity'

Since being elected mayor of Cambridge, Massachusetts by her city council peers, Denise Simmons has fielded a few questions from the three grandchildren she is raising: Can they enjoy watching the Super Bowl on the flat screen TV that hangs in the mayor's office? Does this mean extra tickets to the high school graduation? Will they get an allowance now?

Simmons responds by reminding them that, "I'm not here to make your life different; I'm here because I worked to get here. Now let's talk about the process." Her historic election as the country's first African American, out lesbian mayor was the result of working her way up the ranks from ward committee member to school committee member to city councilor, which ultimately positioned her for her new post, she tells them.

"It's an opportunity also to tell them it's all about grit and determination that makes it happen for you," adds Simmons during a recent interview in her new office. "And grit and determination of an African American woman."

Simmons, a history buff who has researched her ancestry, then references the remarks she made upon being sworn into office on Jan. 14, in which she recounted the tale of her grandfather, Pompey Hines, who was born into slavery and later freed by the Emancipation Proclamation. His former owner, said Simmons, told Hines he could keep as much land as he could walk off. "Would he have believed when he was toiling in the fields that one day in a distant time that he would never see, not even in his dreams, that one of his own would be the mayor of a major city?" she says. "That's what being here is all about."

In a similar vein, Simmons also asks if Bayard Rustin, the black civil rights activist who was relegated to a behind-the-scenes role in the movement because he was gay, could ever have imagined "that one of his own would ever be the mayor of a major city?

"And so it's a sort of double reward, if you will, but I think back from whence I came and what I came through and let [my grandchildren] know it was never easy."

In an interesting twist, Simmons, who has served on the Cambridge City Council since 2001, is the city's second consecutive African American, openly gay mayor: She succeeded Ken Reeves, who completed his third term as mayor last year.

Simmons said she was focused more on the nuts and bolts of the job than on the historic nature of her election when she decided to throw her hat in the mayoral ring. "You know, the mayor chairs the school committee so I was thinking of the job of chairing the school committee," she explains, noting that her grandchildren, who are 10, 14 and 16, attend city schools. "I came from the school committee to the city council, so I've always had an interest, an ongoing interest, keen interest, in public education."

In addition to education, Simmons says her priorities as mayor include crafting a "green jobs" policy that will serve the economic interests of local workers - particularly in minority and other traditionally disenfranchised communities - while also raising awareness of environmental issues, better coordination of education, youth and family services, increasing the purchase of city services from local businesses and crafting a policy for low- and moderate- income housing that would allow more people access to affordable housing.

Simmons also says she'll continue in her role as an advocate for the LGBT community. In the past, Simmons had a hand in creating the position of LGBT family liaison in the city's school system, fighting to keep a "Love Makes A Family" a photographic exhibit depicting LGBT families on display in a city school and organizing an LGBT Town Meeting that spawned the creation of the city's LGBT commission, which is currently seeking new members (see "Wanted: a few good gays," p.13).

But as the first African American lesbian mayor, Simmons is also aware that her constituency now extends beyond Cambridge's borders. "The advocacy gets broader," she says.

"It's an important job and I take it on and it continues to unfold in terms of just what that means," she also says. "Because when I think about it, I think about my own grandchildren, I think of young people who are sort of in the coming-out process. I think this is an extraordinary opportunity for the African American gay and lesbian community in particular, because they have a role model that they can reach out and touch. 'Here's one of my own. ... This is me, I can be that.' It's okay to be out or it's easier maybe to come out," says Simmons. "The possibilities are endless. I'm happy to be here to be able to do that in a broader sense."

Indeed, the possibilities are endless. Certainly, Simmons never expected that among the national media attention her election received would be a shout-out from openly gay celebrity gossip-blogger Perez Hilton, who posted a congratulatory blog entry complete with a photo of Simmons (which, in a rare show of restraint, did not include any of his trademark graffiti).

Simmons says she had no idea who Perez Hilton was before the posting. But now that she's been clued in, she jokes, "Perez Hilton talked about moi. I have arrived."