At a young-looking 51-years-old, Ken Keechl stands out. Proud of his success in business and politics, Keechl and his partner of 17 years, Ted Adcock, were married in New York in 2011.
“I was out in all of my campaigns,” Keechl said. “There were photos of me and Ted together on my campaign literature. We were visibly a couple and, yes, we won.”
“Besides,” he continued, “I’d been a 2-term president of the Dolphin Democrats, [the local LGBT Democratic group] so people knew who I was and what I stood for.”
Keechl was elected to the Broward County Commission in 2006. He was appointed vice mayor of Broward County in 2008 and mayor in 2009; the appointments were made by vote of the commission members.
He was the first openly gay politician to hold these seats although he is quick to mention that other elected positions in the state had been held by openly gay people as well.
For a number of different reasons, Keechl lost his commission seat in 2010 but has announced his candidacy as an openly gay candidate for the 2014 election cycle.
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