In 2004, Gordon Dennis Fox was one of three openly gay members of the Rhode Island General Assembly, alongside Reps. Frank Ferri (D-Warwick) and Deb Ruggiero (D-Jamestown).

Now, Fox has the distention of being the first openly gay speaker of a state lower house, although Assemblyman John A. Pérez (D-Los Angeles) was elected to the speakership of the California Assembly several weeks before Fox (Pérez, however, will not be sworn in as speaker until March 1).

Members of the State of Rhode Island & Providence Plantations (official name of the state) House of Representatives elected Fox to succeed William J. Murphy in a day of pomp and speechifying, capping months of behind-the-scenes maneuvering.

After March 01, 2010, two states will have openly gay executives in charge of their lower chambers (California’s equivalent to a House of Representatives is the California Assembly).

Fox (pictured) is an attorney who was first elected to the Rhode Island House of Representatives in 1992. He is a graduate of Providence College, Rhode Island College, and Northeastern Law School.

“Politics is often timing, and you deal with the times you’re allotted,” Fox said in 2001, after being named House Finance Chairman.

The Providence Journal reported that during a famous midnight budget debate in 2004, an impassioned Fox lashed out at Republican Governor Donald L. Carcieri for trying to cut backroom deals to pick off Democratic votes. “Let’s get it on,” Fox thundered. “If you put lipstick on the pig, it’s still a pig, Governor Carcieri.”

Still, at a December news conference, Rhode Island Governor Carcieri gushed about Fox as “a real champion” for economic development.

Rhode Island & Providence Plantations is the smallest of the 50 U.S. states by size, and ranks 42nd by population with just over 1 million citizens. California ranks as the 3rd largest U.S. state by size, and 1st by population with nearly 40 million citizens.