Gary Johnson, former governor of New Mexico and staunch gay-rights and legal marijuana advocate, has announced his intention to run for president on the Republican ticket in 2012.
An avid mountain climber, skier, cyclist and tri-athlete, Johnson has been vocal in his support of socially liberal campaigns for cannabis reform and LGBT equality in recent years. ChicagoPride.com reports that the new GOP candidate was governor of New Mexico from 1994 to 2003, and has since launched the OUR America Initiative, a 501c(4) non-profit organization dedicated to rational fiscal policy.
Johnson has worked with the organization NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws) to promote legal and regulated cannabis as a means to curtail U.S. crime. “By making it a legal, regulated product, availability can be restricted, under-age use curtailed, enforcement/court/incarceration costs reduced, and the profit removed from a massive underground and criminal economy,” Johnson once stated in a press release.
How will Johnson’s campaign affect LGBT equality issues in the 2012 race? Will he hold up against socially conservative candidates like Donald Trump and Mitt Romney? Only time and the confirmation of GOP candidates will tell.
