The first openly gay African-American mayor in California, Ron Oden, was elected in Palm Springs on Tuesday night, while Steve Pougnet, an openly gay man, and Ginny Foat, an openly lesbian woman, were elected to city council.

Former Palm Springs City Councilmember Oden celebrated at the Riviera Hotel in Palm Springs, where he was elected mayor. Oden, whose campaign slogan was “It’s Time for a Change,” won with 51 percent of the vote, a substantial lead over incumbent Will Kleindienst, who received 43 percent of the vote.

There were two seats open in the race for city council, but a third seat was created because Oden, as mayor-elect, must vacate his council seat even though his second term is not up. The two winners of the city council race were Mike McCullough, with 24 percent of the vote, and Pougnet, with 17 percent of the vote. Foat was the third highest vote getter, receiving 15 percent of the vote, so she will take Oden’s seat as soon as the mayor-elect is sworn in.

“I know that the people of [Palm Springs] are just having a fit,” said San Diego City Commissioner Nicole Murray-Ramirez, who was delighted at the news. “An African-American and a gay — who would have ever thought? And then Ginny [Foat], it’s unbelievable. I mean there are three of them!”

What makes the election interesting is that the election results — three out of five of Palm Spring’s new leaders are gay or lesbian — went unreported by the broadcast media during the elections, even though the story is a historical milestone.

It is also notable that two other candidates in the race, William Feingold and David Peet, were also openly gay, and that none of these gay or lesbian candidates made their sexual orientation an issue during their campaigns. It is estimated that the population of Palm Springs is 35-40 percent GLBT.

According to Murray-Ramirez, Oden’s campaign was successful for two major reasons: Kleindienst was too conservative and was out of touch with the changing population of Palm Springs. Second, the GLBT community in Palm Springs in the last several years has become very politically involved and better organized. They have held fundraisers for, endorsed and run candidates in the past, but this time their efforts to get out the vote were efficient and well marketed.

Murray-Ramirez served on the board of Equality California with Oden. “He is definitely a man of integrity and is a strong and effective leader.… He is just very decent, and a man with much credibility.… I think Palm Springs definitely wanted a change.”

Both Foat and Pougnet have been politically and socially active in the Palm Springs community. Pougnet is chairman of the Citizens’ Committee of the Palm Springs Community Development Block Grant Program and serves on the AIDS Assistance Program’s board of directors. Foat has been well known for the past twenty years statewide as a political activist, and has a solid background in political leadership. She was co-chair of the Los Angeles HIV/AIDS Commission and served for 10 years as the executive director of Caring for Babies with AIDS. Foat now serves on the Palm Springs Budget Task Force, where she chairs the Revenue Enhancement Subcommittee.