MEXICO CITY – Miguel Antonio Galán has become the first openly gay politician to run for a mayorship in Mexico, throwing his hat into the ring in the race for the city hall of the populous and traditionalist city of Guadalajara, the Mexican Social Democratic Party, or PSD, said.

The minority party’s State Political Council on Friday selected its candidates for local lawmakers and municipal leaders in the industrial region, which is known for its tequila and mariachi bands, PSD spokesmen in Jalisco state, whose capital is Guadalajara, told Efe.

The 31-year-old Galán will contend on July 5 for the mayorship of Guadalajara, which with its more than 3 million residents is one of the country’s economic engines.

The NotieSe news agency, which specializes in reporting on sexual diversity, said that there had never been in Mexico other openly homosexual candidates seeking to win a mayorship, but there have been both state and federal lawmakers of that sexual orientation.

Among those are Patria Jiménez in 1997, David Sánchez Camacho and Enoe Uranga, all of the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution.

Uranga in 2001 pushed in the capital the Cohabitation Societies law allowing same-sex unions. It did not pass then but was ultimately approved in 2007.

Recently, in an interview with Efe, Galán said that what he wants is for people to dilute in their own minds “this gay part of the candidate and for us to finally move to (thinking about) how the specific proposals to change the city’s dynamic are.”

“Proposals have to be made, beyond what the candidate’s (bedroom activities) are,” he said.

The most optimistic projections of the PSD for Jalisco are for it to capture 3 percent of the vote.

Currently, the city’s mayorship is in the hands of the conservative National Action Party led by Mexican President Felipe Calderón, the party which also governs the state of Jalisco.

The PSD, which among other things supports the legalization of drugs and the decriminalization of abortion, holds 5 of the 500 seats in the lower house of Congress, but it does not control any Senate posts.