People who go way back in this community can remember a time when any politician who came out in favor of GLBT rights was hands-down the clear choice for our community, so rare was it that we received open support.

Now things are more complicated — in a good way.

Many of the candidates in the major local races for the upcoming March 2 primary support us on the issues — the need for a clean-needle exchange program, the end of the city’s support of discrimination with the Boy Scouts’ lease, and the medical use of marijuana — and a number of them openly support the rights of gays and lesbians to marry, even in the wake of White House proclamations about the sanctity of heterosexual-only unions.

What this means is that many of our GLBT issues are on the map with the candidates, and we have some clear choices in the upcoming local elections.

Here are our picks for each of the important local races.

Long-time community activist Vince Hall is our choice to represent the 76th district Sacramento. Hall has been a member of the San Diego Democratic Club for 10 years, has walked in the city’s LGBT Pride parade every year, and has a long-time history with the GLBT community that pre-dates his running for office. In fact, he openly credits the community for being part of his inspiration for running in the first place. Of the three candidates for this seat, he is the most vigorous supporter of the GLBT community, and he has our vote.

Mike Aguirre is a successful attorney, with solid positions on all of the key issues. In 2001, Aguirre took an unpopular stand and openly testified against the Boy Scout lease before the city council. In fact, the best thing about Aguirre may be his independence — unlike his opponents, he’s not associated in any way with the dismal tenure of Casey Gwinn. He’s also displayed foresight on the city’s dealings with the Chargers on a couple of instances. Aguirre is the man for the job.

Deputy Mayor Toni Atkins, who currently holds the District 3 City Council seat, is the clear choice in this race, and has the clear support of the community across the board. She not only comes down on the right side of every issue, from marriage to needle exchange and the Boy Scouts, she’s also an openly gay, eloquent defender of GLBT issues. Meanwhile, contender John Hartley, who’s completely backpedaled on some important issues — wouldn’t even talk. However, even if he were consistent, we’d say if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

As we outlined in last week’s editorial, Roberts is one of those rare GLBT-friendly Republicans. As a county supervisor, he’s established a dialogue with and a presence in the community, and we feel that as mayor he would be more inclusive and supportive of key GLBT issues than the present mayor.

As far as the love-birds standing on our wedding cake on the cover of this issue —(sometimes you just have to laugh, don’t you think?) — we hope the case is clear: The White House uses bigotry and ignorance to justify rewriting the Constitution of the United States, and goes so far as to invoke the welfare of our children as part of the case for discrimination. Making a change means voting Democratic — tick the box next to John Kerry’s name.

The reason we have choices in this election and in life in general, is because enough GLBT citizens have gotten involved, spoke out and voted, in past elections. Be part of it.

No one who’s been conscious through Election 2000, where a Democratic nominee lost the presidency by hundreds of votes, can now doubt that their vote makes a difference. Get out the GLT’s annual pull-out voter guide on page 45 and put March 2 in your palm pilot.

In other words, wake up, smell the coffee, getcher head out of the disco ball and … Vote!