Entrepreneur Jared Polis could become the first openly gay man elected to the U.S. Congress as a non-incumbent, according to the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund. He won the Democratic primary last night in Colorado’s “overwhelmingly Democratic” 2nd Congressional District, and the Victory Fund says he is “nearly certain to win the seat in November.” He would join Reps. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI; the first openly gay person of any gender elected to Congress as a non-incumbent) and Barney Frank (D-MA; who came out after serving several terms) as the only openly gay or lesbian members of Congress.
Everyone in the LGBT political blogosphere is going to be covering the news this morning. The Mombian angle, however, is that Polis’ parents are the founders of Starfall, a wonderful pre-reading and early-reading site for kids.
Polis’ parents had earlier founded Blue Mountain Arts publishing company. Polis, who had launched a Web-hosting company while still in college, then ran the online spinoff of his parents’ venture, bluemountain.com, one of the early successful electronic greeting card companies. He is credited at Starfall with contributing to the overall family “vision” and love of education that led to Starfall. (He is also the former chair of the Colorado Board of Education.)
If you haven’t tried Starfall yet, I urge you to do so. The graphics are very basic, often looking like they’ve been put together with free clip art, but they’re colorful and engaging and remind me that most of the whizzy stuff on other sites is overkill. Most importantly, the pedagogy is top-rate. It’s also free and there is no advertising beyond a few modest links to the Starfall store of educational products.
I profess no detailed knowledge of Polis’ views beyond what is on his Web site, but I can only imagine it will be good for LGBT parents and our children to have an openly gay member of Congress with a special interest in education.
Regardless of your politics, check out Starfall for your kids, if they’re in the right age range.