In her first time stumping at an LGBT community center, Elizabeth Banks looked at the wall behind her in the William Way ballroom Monday night; it was covered in Hillary Clinton campaign posters like “I’m with her” and “Love trumps hate.”
The “Hunger Games” and “Pitch Perfect” actress said, “I don’t think I have to convince you anymore about Hillary.”
Instead, Banks told the roughly 30 people gathered for the fall endorsement meeting of the Liberty City LGBT Democratic Club that “in this room we’re all really excited about her. But Hillary as inevitable is not correct, especially here in Pennsylvania.”
“This election will be decided in this state by you guys and your friends and your families,” she said. “You’ve got to go to OutFest. You’ve got to work the tables. You’ve got to get out the vote for your community. Getting people to the polling station on Election Day, that has got to be your number one goal.”
Banks spoke for about 10 minutes at the Sept. 26 meeting, just before the first presidential debate. She peppered her presentation with humor, noting it only took 250 years for a woman to have a shot at earning the presidency. Banks said people who stay home on Election Day will be disappointed; not because Republican Donald Trump will win, but because they did not participate in the historic moment of electing the first female president.
“I think the rhetoric that Donald Trump brings up is life threatening to people in your community,” Banks added. “I think it’s life threatening to black people in America. I think his stance and support with the NRA is life threatening…People’s lives are at stake. Hillary Clinton wants to protect those lives.”
Banks said she grew up a “real product of the things that Democrats care about,” like subsidized childcare and affordable healthcare. In western Massachusetts, her father was “pink-slipped” three times while working for General Electric, and her mother worked first for a bank that got consumed by a larger institution then a toy company that went under due to market pressure from Amazon.
She told PGN it was important to visit an LGBT space in Philadelphia.
“The grassroots of the LGBT community, they get stuff done,” Banks said.
“We’ve got to get every faction out to vote,” she added. “Really, this group of people, these interested citizens, they’re on the ground. They’re going to be the ones that have to do it. I just want them to know they have my support.”
Banks’ Philadelphia trip also included a stop at her alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania. In July, several thousand students and alumni of the Wharton School signed an open letter to Trump, a graduate, saying they are “outraged that an affiliation with our school is being used to legitimize prejudice and intolerance.”
“They wrote an open letter saying he does not represent us, stop saying you went to Penn,” Banks said. “I was like, retweet.”
Liberty City also heard from Matt Darragh, who’s running for state representative in Northeast Philadelphia, and Mike Parrish, who’s running for Congress to represent parts of Chester and Montgomery counties. The club endorsed both, as well as Eugene DePasquale for state auditor general and Diane Cornman-Levy for a state representative from Delaware County.
The Democratic club endorsed Clinton for president in the spring before the primary elections, along with a host of other local candidates.
For more information, visit www.libertycity.org.