http://www.gaypolitics.com/2011/10/25/meet-americas-first-openly-gay-political-candidate/
“There was nothing in the books that said a gay person could not run,” explains Jose Sarria of his groundbreaking run for political office in San Francisco 50 years ago. The 89 year-old founder of the Imperial Court System said police harassment of homosexuals throughout the 1950s inspired him to borrow a suit and persuade city politicos to let him on the ballot in 1961.