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Finding love after 50. The website for middle aged singles and senior singles, providing information and dating advice for middle age dating and
senior dating. This column's topic: California man runs as the singles candidate for governor.
Saturday, August 16, 2003
Single-minded gubernatorial bid
By
TOM BLAKE
The Orange County Register
In addition to the porn star, the sumo wrestler and other interesting folks on the recall ballot, there's one more oddity - a married guy running on a singles
platform.
Rich Gosse, 54, a San Rafael resident, filed his candidacy for governor on Aug. 5.
"Someone has to stand up for the 42 percent of the population that is single and neglected by politicians," said Gosse, a former middle- school teacher who
now conducts college-level singles education classes. "I believe single adults deserve the same rights and benefits as their married counterparts: equal taxes, insurance,
retirement benefits, employee benefit programs, housing allocations for single military personnel and unemployment benefits."
Gosse has taught classes on how to find love at more than 60 colleges and universities in California and Nevada, including Orange Coast, Coastline, Irvine
and Saddleback colleges. He writes books and appears on shows like "Oprah" and "Donohue."
Gosse has other issues. He is campaigning for the decriminalization of crimes such as gambling, prostitution and drugs. And he thinks teens should
complete a parenting course before graduating high school.
One beef he has with Gov. Gray Davis is that he vetoed a bill requiring parenting education as a condition for high school graduation.
But how did the singles champion end up married?
"For over 20 years, I was the proverbial mechanic whose car doesn't run," Gosse said. "I was teaching tens of thousands of romantic eligibles how to find love,
but was still single."
But five years ago, Gosse spoke at a singles seminar in San Francisco.
"There was a woman in the front row who laughed at my jokes," Gosse said of Debby Jordan, the woman who would later become his wife.
He added, "Marriage hasn't diminished my concern for the needs of single people."
Tom Blake's column on relationships appears in Accent and in the Register's south-county community papers. Reach him at
tpblake@aol.com
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