On this date DAVID CATANIA became the first openly gay or Lesbian person to be elected to the city council of Washington, D.C. Catania was elected as a Republican but left the party during the George W. Bush administration in protest of the right-ward, anti-Gay takeover the GOP. He’s now an independent. Catania would go on to author, sponsor and shepherd through the key legislation that legalized same-sex marriage in the nation’s capital in 2010.