Liberty City Democratic Club was founded in the fall of 1994 by activists who wanted to ensure issues impacting lesbians and gays took on greater prominence in the Democratic Party. In addition, the group worked to elect candidates to office who supported our issues and to elect candidates who were openly gay or lesbian to office.
Over time, as an organization, we have evolved and learned more about the complexities of the various communities that comprise the LGBT community in Philadelphia. We have expanded our mission to be inclusive of the full spectrum of the LGBT community. Additionally, LCDC has made a point of ensuring gender parity within the organization’s board of directors via the appointment of co-chairs: One must be female-identified and the other male-identified.
LCDC continues to strive toward greater gender and racial parity and, as such, we are presently looking for new members to join our organization and give some of their time, talent and commitment to strengthening the scope of work Liberty City aims to do over the coming years. We have ongoing committees and some that are more time-limited in nature; for example, the Get Out The Vote (GOTV) committee that convenes for several weeks around the primary and the November election seasons. Another time-limited committee is the Endorsement committee, which meets several weeks prior to the primary election to decide which candidates LCDC should support. From this committee, a slate of candidates is created and presented to the general body for discussion and a vote.
The remaining committees we currently have in the organization are Communications, Fundraising, Membership Development and Policy and Advocacy. One example of the work of the Policy and Advocacy committee are partnerships that LCDC engaged in with other advocacy groups, such as protesting against SEPTA to remove the gender labels on transit passes. This issue has a direct impact on transgender and gender nonconforming members of our communities.
These are only a few examples of the work that Liberty City Democratic Club is doing on behalf of LGBT Philadelphians and our brothers and sisters around the state. For a listing of more activities and achievements of the organization, please visit our Web site at www.libertycity.org. In order for us to expand the scope of work we are doing as a completely volunteer-run organization, we need your help. Over the next few months, we are beginning a recruitment-drive effort to increase our membership. While we are interested in anyone who wants to be part of increasing LCDC’s impact on the Democratic Party and passage of pro-LGBT legislation, we have a special interest in recruiting LGBT people of color and women of all races to join the organization.
If you are interested in experiencing an LCDC general body meeting, you can come to our next meeting at 6 p.m. Jan. 28 at the William Way LGBT Community Center, 1315 Spruce St. General meetings are open to the public, whether you are a member or not. This meeting will include an Election 101 discussion on the job descriptions of various elected officials, and audience members will have the opportunity to ask questions or get clarification on the roles of those persons we have elected into office to represent us.
We sincerely hope you will consider being part of this dynamic team of progressive Democrats working to make Philadelphia and the state of Pennsylvania a better place for its LGBT citizens. If you have any questions, please send an e-mail to [email protected].
Lee Carson is a board member of Liberty City Democratic Club.