I had the opportunity to spend some time on the phone with Annise Parker, Houston’s Mayor-elect. Parker’s victory created headlines because she will become the first openly gay mayor of such a large US city. And on the call, Parker talked about how electing gay candidates has at this stage become easier than voting through gay issues at the ballot box.

Parker, previously city councilman and City Controller in Houston, campaigned on a message of economic prosperity and her experience in local government – “and you know I’m gay,” as she put it. Parker considers herself to be a lesbian activist, and was active on LGBT issues in Houston before stepping into the political arena. She feels that her longtime presence in the community made it easier for Houstonians to support her. “I had support from moderate Republicans who were on the other side of me on some of those LGBT battles.”

Parker offered words of encouragement to those who are disillusioned by recent setbacks on gay rights, like the defeats for marriage equality in Maine and New York. She said that “the world is changing,” and while marriage is such an intense and personal issue and the battle may take a longer time than equality battles in other areas, activists “should remember the long arc of history.” Parker personally seemed interested in “winning the war, not individual battles,” including electing more LGBT candidates across the country, to put a human face on the issues in the future.

Parker saw her election as “an opportunity to open eyes and open some doors.” She said that business leaders in the community saw her election as an opportunity for Houston to show itself as a more tolerant place. Ironically, one of the more vicious anti-gay attacks Parker endured during the campaign was a mailer with Parker and her partner on the front, and the text “Is this the image Houston wants to portray?” Parker said that, based on her discussions with community leaders, “it seems like the answer was ‘Yes!’”

Parker was not surprised by the attacks, which came late in the campaign. “We did polling throughout the campaign, tested negative attacks on me,” she said, preparing her for the assault, which led to a swift backlash against the intolerance.

Houston has a ban on domestic partner benefits, from a 2001 referendum that lost by just a 51-49 margin. Parker said that she believed strongly in domestic partner benefits, and in 2001, when she was also on the ballot, she donated $25,000 to the effort from her campaign to beat the ban. However, she said that the law, which was put in place by referendum, can only be undone by referendum, and she didn’t find it appropriate for the Mayor of the city to initiate that effort. “It needs to be done by the community… next time it’s on the ballot, I think we win.” Parker expected a new referendum to be put on the ballot in the coming years.

Parker stressed that her mayoralty in Houston would be focused mostly on the economy. Houston is slowly recovering from the Great Recession and still has issues with unemployment. I asked Parker about whether she believes more federal stimulus money is needed for job creation in Houston, and she said that a lot of the money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act hasn’t flowed to the city. “As City Controller, for a lot of that stimulus money, the check is still in the mail,” she said. “It’s been designated but not spent. I do want to see more infrastructure dollars because that’s what creates jobs. Too many soft dollars have been spent because the funding mechanisms are already in place. Infrastructure mechanisms are slower, but the job impact is greater. So anything to create more jobs will help.”