The primary election is this coming Tuesday, and your vote is needed. This election is going to be close — we are looking at a two- or three- point race — which means that our community can play a major role in electing the next mayor. And our hope is that it will be Jim Kenney, a man who has stood side by side with us for almost a quarter of a century. But again, that only happens if you come out to vote. It will be that close.
Let me tell you why. The closest any open LGBT person came to winning a major elected city position was Sherrie Cohen four years ago when, as she is doing again this year, she ran for City Council-at-Large. She came within 1,600 votes of winning.
This year, unlike in 2011, she has the endorsement from the powerful Democratic City Committee, all Center City wards, a host of support from neighborhood and civic organizations, elected officials such as former Gov. Ed Rendell, Lt. Gov. Mike Stack, state Rep. Brian Sims, John Dougherty, City Controller Alan Butkovitz and the plumbers and bricklayers unions, among many others. She is poised to win, but only if we get out and vote in force.
Another LGBT candidate, Paul Steinke, is running for Council as well and has run a fine campaign. And, like me, you should support him. Since you get five votes for at-Large candidates, you should also support incumbents and LGBT allies Blondell Reynolds Brown, Bill Greenlee and Ed Neilson.
Now to the courts, where many equality-related laws are enforced.
For state Supreme Court, we’re backing Kevin Dougherty. Early in his tenure as administrative judge of Family Court, he learned that another judge had referred to a transgender child in an official report as “it.” He was so offended that he decided to personally handle all cases of transgender youth who ran into trouble until he was able to recruit the right judges with proper training necessary to give those kids the respect they deserved. We’re also supporting Anne Lazarus. As legal counsel to Orphans’ Court in Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, she made it a point to support the issues of LGBT youth when few others understood their special needs.
There are 12 open seats on the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas. We are supporting out candidates Christopher Mallios, Abbe Fletman and Leon King, as well as Ken Powell, Rainy Papademetriou, Kai Scott, Daine Grey, Michael Fanning, Stella Tsai, Mia Roberts-Perez and Brian Ortelere. And in Montgomery County, out Court of Common Pleas candidate Dan Clifford. For the three open Municipal Court seats, we are backing Sharon Williams-Losier, Christian DiCicco and Christine Hope.
I hope to see you all at the polls May 19.