PGN conducted interviews with candidates running in the May 19 municipal election about a wide range of LGBT issues, to inform our community about their positions and to form the basis for PGN’s endorsement decisions. We sent written surveys to all Democratic candidates for City Commissioner, and the summaries of the completed questionnaires are included below.
Carol Jenkins
http://caroljenkins.nationbuilder.com/
As a ward leader of the 27th Ward, Carol Jenkins has been responsible for supervising the election process in University City and Southwest Philadelphia, and has worked with city workers and institutional administrators who support Election Day activities. Jenkins holds a master’s in public administration and has taught politics at Temple University since obtaining her doctorate degree in political science.
Jenkins said she would reach out to voters in marginalized communities, including LGBT voters, and work with community organizations “to educate voters and make sure that they have confidence that their votes are valuable and that the city wants to hear their voices.”
Jenkins said a lack of elected officials prepared to work with the LGBT community and represent their issues is the most pressing issue facing the LGBT community.
“But this might be the year for change,” she added.
Jenkins noted that LGBT equality is personal for her: She has a gay brother and bisexual daughter, which she said has given her “a personal knowledge of and interest in LGBT issues, and especially ensuring that community members feel that they are welcomed at every level of civic engagement.”
Will Mega
www.votewillmega.com/
Will Mega has volunteered and worked on political campaigns and voter-registration drives since the age of 9, when he started as a youth volunteer for now-Congressman Chaka Fattah and state Sen. Vincent Hughes.
After running for state representative in the past, he decided he could make a greater impact in the City Commissioner’s Office, by using his community-organizing skills to drive the 600,000 registered voters to the polls who don’t traditionally vote in elections.
Mega is currently employed as dean of students at a Philadelphia accelerated and alternative high school that serves previous high-school drop-outs.
He said Philadelphia’s LGBT community needs “equal representation in every field of human endeavor.”
“I don’t just mean having people of the LGBT community being employed in a leadership capacity in every field, but more so, having people in leadership positions that understand the LGBT community and assure and understand their issues from a culturally competent position,” he said. “If elected City Commissioner, I will work to create an environment that is free from stigma and bias, and accepts people for who they are and that enables all to contribute to their full potential, regardless of their background. I have spent my entire adult life as an activist fightign for the politically, socially, economically and racially oppressed community. As I have grown in my activism, I now fight for all people who are being discriminated against.”