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Craig Covey (born 1957) is an
American politician In the United States, politics functions within a framework of a constitutional federal democratic republic with a presidential system. The three distinct branches share powers: Congress, which forms the legislative branch, a bicameral legis ...
who served as Mayor of Ferndale, Michigan from 2008 to 2011. He was the second openly gay mayor elected in the state of
Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...
. A
Democrat Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to: Politics *A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people. *A member of a Democratic Party: **Democratic Party (Cyprus) (DCY) **Democratic Part ...
, he resigned the office in 2010 to take a seat on the Oakland County Commission, where he served one term.


Biography

Born in
Columbus, Ohio Columbus (, ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities in Ohio, most populous city of the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 United States census, 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the List of United States ...
, Covey was an activist, and executive director of Stonewall Union (now Stonewall Columbus) in the 1980s. He lived in Michigan after moving to the state to become executive director of the
Michigan Organization for Human Rights The Michigan Organization for Human Rights (MOHR, ) was a Michigan-based civil rights and anti-discrimination organization. It was founded in 1977 and disbanded in 1994, with most of its assets transferring to the University of Michigan Bentley H ...
in 1985 and lived in Ferndale from 1989 until 2017.


Gay activism

Covey moved to Michigan from Ohio to head the Michigan Organization for Human Rights (now
Equality Michigan Equality Michigan is an Americans, American civil rights, advocacy and anti-violence organization serving Michigan's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBTQ) community. Equality Michigan serves Michigan's LGBT community through victims servi ...
) in 1985. He is credited with organizing Detroit's first Gay and Lesbian pride march, an event later known as Motor City Pride. He founded the Midwest AIDS Prevention Project. In 2001, he founded La Comunidad, a support group for gay Latino men in the metro Detroit area. Covey was also CEO of the Midwest AIDS Prevention Project and Chief Operating Officer of the Michigan AIDS Coalition, the organization resulting from the merging of MAPP and the Michigan AIDS Fund in 2009. He left the Michigan AIDS Coalition the following year. He co-founded Ferndale Pride in 2011, when Motor City Pride moved from Ferndale to Detroit.


Political career

Covey lost his first race for Ferndale City Council in 1995 by a wide margin, but was elected on his second try and served from 1999 to 2008. He was Ferndale's first gay city councilor. As a city council member, Covey introduced Ferndale's human rights ordinance in 2006, which was approved by voters in November of that year. Ferndale's first gay mayor, he was elected on November 6, 2007, for a two-year term, succeeding three-term mayor Robert Porter, by defeating Tom Gagne 54% - 46%. He was re-elected unopposed in November 2009. In 2010, he ran for the Oakland County Commission, winning a three-way Democratic primary on August 3, 2010 and besting a Republican in the November general election. It would prove to be his last electoral victory. After Republican redistricting, Covey faced fellow Democratic incumbent Commissioner Helaine Zack (D-Huntington Woods) in a primary election, which he lost on August 7, 2012, by 54% to 46%. In early 2013, he began working as a special assistant to Oakland County Water Resources Commissioner Jim Nash. He ran again for mayor of
Ferndale, Michigan Ferndale is a city in Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. An inner-ring suburb of Detroit on the Woodward Corridor, Ferndale borders Detroit to the north, roughly northwest of downtown Detroit. As of the 2020 census, the city had a ...
, on November 5, 2013, challenging the openly gay incumbent, David Coulter, but was defeated. Covey unsuccessfully challenged incumbent Oakland County Sheriff
Mike Bouchard Michael J. Bouchard (born April 12, 1956) is an American law enforcement officer and politician who has served as the sheriff of Oakland County, Michigan since 1999. A member of the Republican Party, Bouchard previously served in the Michigan St ...
in 2016. In 2020, he ran for Stark County (Ohio) Treasurer, but lost.


See also

*
LGBT community of Metro Detroit The LGBT community in Metro Detroit is centered in Ferndale, Michigan, as of 2007. As of 1997, many LGBT people live in Ferndale, Pleasant Ridge, and Royal Oak. ''Model D'' stated in 2007 that there are populations of gays and lesbians in some D ...


References


External links


Covey's blog
{{DEFAULTSORT:Covey, Craig 1957 births County commissioners in Michigan Living people Ohio State University alumni American gay politicians LGBTQ mayors of places in the United States Mayors of places in Michigan LGBTQ people from Michigan People from Ferndale, Michigan 21st-century mayors of places in Michigan American chief executives American chief operating officers 21st-century American LGBTQ people