Cover Boy

Mayor Randy Kelly made the cover of the latest issue of Lavender, which bills itself as "Minnesota's Gay-Lesbian-Bisexual-Transgender Magazine."



The mayor sat for an interview with Lavender contributor Heidi Fellner. But if you pick up the free biweekly publication, don't expect to be enlightened on Kelly's thoughts about gay marriage or any other issue percolating through the GLBT community in the Twin Cities. None of the 10 questions put to Kelly touches on issues specific to the magazine's target audience.

Instead, Kelly talks at length about the city's business climate, transit projects and downtown development. The magazine didn't ask the mayor about his decision last fall to cross party lines and endorse President Bush, who backs a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. (Scoop notes that when Kelly announced his Bush endorsement Aug. 1, he said he would prefer that the president focus greater energy on the federal budget deficit and "resist those who believe gay marriage should be an issue to divide America to win an election.")

Softball interviews aside, Kelly still faces an uphill fight to win support from the gay community in this fall's mayoral election. The gay and lesbian Stonewall DFL caucus has endorsed Kelly's rival, former City Council Member Chris Coleman.