This paper presents a rank-constrained linear matrix inequality(LMI) approach to simultaneous linear-quadratic(LQ) optimal control by static output feedback. Simultaneous LQ optimal control is formulated as an LMI optimization problem with a nonconvex rank condition. An iterative penalty method recently developed is applied to solve this rank-constrained LMI optimization problem. Numerical experiments are performed to illustrate the proposed method, and the results are compared with those of previous work.