Mike Huckabee. Newt Gingrich. Ron Paul. Jim DeMint. Bobby Jindal. All are southern politicians who have taken a wide range of anti-LGBT positions -- from blasting gay marriage as a threat to the family, to saying that gay people are ill-suited to be parents, to even suggesting that HIV-positive people should be locked up. But while these faces have long been the face of Southern politics, there's a new crew in town that is reframing and reshaping the political fabric in the south.

And it's a whole bunch of queer folk.

Specifically, openly LGBT politicians who have increased their numbers steadily in the South in some of the most conservative environments the United States has to offer. From Annise Parker, the newly-minted lesbian mayor of Houston, to Mark Kleinschmidt, the next mayor of Chapel Hill, there are folks breaking new ground in the world of LGBT politics.