National
Behind the scenes of the Obama campaign
LGBT staffers take key roles in 2012 effort
President Obama (Blade file photo by Michael Key)
[Editor’s note: This is the second of a two-part series.]
Gay and lesbian staffers have taken key roles ranging from public outreach to battleground state strategy in the campaign already underway to re-elect President Obama to the White House in 2012.
The Washington Blade interviewed four gay and lesbian staffers working to re-elect Obama from the campaign headquarters in Chicago. This article is the second in a two-part series and features interviews with two of the campaign workers: Jamie Citron, LGBT vote director for Project Vote, and Karine Jean-Pierre, deputy battleground states director.
As LGBT vote director for Project Vote, Citron, who’s 28 and gay, is focused on monitoring the news developments and needs of the LGBT community. Established in August, Project Vote is the Obama campaign’s initiative aimed at encouraging participation among Democratic base constituencies, including LGBT Americans.
“Usually when I first make it into the office, it’s trying to catch up on the community,” Citron said. “It’s seeing what the conversations are, what the buzz was overnight on the listservs. It’s about reading the blogs and reading the LGBT press and seeing what the top lines of the stories are today.”
Other daily duties for Citron are meeting with the rest of the Project Vote team to discuss the best ways for taking the Obama campaign’s messages to the Democratic Party’s constituencies — as well as integrating the concerns of those constituencies into the campaign.
“Most important to me in my mind, each of us kind of figures out how we can work together across constituencies and make sure that we are engaging people as whole people instead of just focusing on one block at a time,” Citron said.
Citron’s role with the Obama campaign is similar to his previous role at the Democratic National Committee, where he served as director of the LGBT leadership council. Citron, who was also involved in the 2008 campaign, said he transferred back to the campaign to take a more direct role in the “engine working the campaign” to re-elect Obama.
A Chicago native, Citron said he also wanted to return to the Windy City to be closer to his boyfriend of three years, Tyler, who’s 30 and a lawyer living in the area. The two met in 2007 at an Obama fundraiser. Citron asked that Tyler’s last name be withheld.
The scope of Jean-Pierre’s role is somewhat larger as she develops campaign strategy for the battleground states in 2012. A key task: providing resources to states and figuring out the best way for them to get the word out for the campaign.
“To me, getting the president re-elected right now is the most important thing that I can be doing with my life,” Jean-Pierre said.
Jean-Pierre’s role is similar to her duties in 2008 as the Obama campaign’s southern political director. Upon Obama’s election, Jean-Pierre, a lesbian, became White House liaison to the Labor Department and later became regional director in the White House Office of Political Affairs.
For Jean-Pierre, the decision to work as part of the 2012 campaign as opposed to staying at the White House was an easy one.
Under the Obama administration, the LGBT community has seen significant achievements, including passage an expanded federal hate crimes law and repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” In February, Obama declared that the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional — after initially defending the anti-gay law in court — and has been filing legal briefs against the statute.
Still, Obama has yet to fulfill all promises to the LGBT community on which he campaigned in 2008. One notable outstanding goal is passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. Obama’s lack of support of same-sex marriage continues to disappoint LGBT advocates.
But those working on the Obama campaign maintain has been a friend to the community and will continue to be an LGBT advocate during a second term in office.
As a recent example of support, Citron cited the news of the Obama administration reasserting that DOMA is unconstitutional in a legal brief against the anti-gay statute in the case of Windsor v. United States as well as an announcement that the Department of Homeland Security will work to take foreign nationals in same-sex relationships out of the deportation pipeline.
“I think the conversation between the LGBT community and the president certainly has been robust over the three years, and I think a lot of good things have come out about it,” Citron said. “Is the conversation finished? No. But I think it’s important that we acknowledge all that has come out from that and all that continues to come out.”
Campaign workers may also have their work cut out for them in convincing the general public to send the president back to the White House. According to recent polls, Obama’s approval ratings are at an all-time low. A Gallup poll published over the weekend found the president’s approval rating stands at just 42 percent.
Citron maintained LGBT people should be part of the effort to re-elect Obama.
“I think that the LGBT community could agree with me when I say I know that a second Obama term means more forward progress, whereas with a Republican entering the White House in 2012, not only does that signal the end to that progress, but it signals the start of a backwards march,” Citron said. “I think that’s something we should all be concerned about.”
Federal Government
US Census Bureau testing survey on LGBTQ households
Agency proposing questions about sexual orientation and gender identity
The U.S. Census Bureau is seeking public comment on a proposed test of sexual orientation and gender identity questions on the American Community Survey. The test would begin this summer and continue into next year.
The Census Bureau published the request as a Federal Register notice. In its press release the agency noted that the ACS is an ongoing survey that collects detailed housing and socioeconomic data. It allows the Census Bureau to provide timely and relevant housing and socioeconomic statistics, even for low levels of geography.
As part of the process for adding new questions to the ACS, the Census Bureau tests potential questions to evaluate the quality of the data collected.
The Census Bureau proposes testing questions about sexual orientation and gender identity to meet the needs of other federal agencies that have expressed interest in or have identified legal uses for the information, such as enforcing civil rights and equal employment measures.
The test would follow the protocols of the actual ACS — with one person asked to respond to the survey on behalf of the entire household. These particular questions are asked about people 15 years of age or older. Households are invited to respond to the survey online, by paper questionnaire or by phone.
The current Federal Register notice gives the public a final opportunity to provide feedback before the Census Bureau submits its recommendations to the Office of Management and Budget for approval. The public may provide feedback through May 30 online.
The White House
Judy Shepard to receive Presidential Medal of Freedom
Nancy Pelosi is also among this year’s honorees
Beloved LGBTQ advocate Judy Shepard is among the 19 honorees who will receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the U.S., the White House announced on Friday.
The mother of Matthew Shepard, who was killed in 1998 in the country’s most notorious anti-gay hate crime, she co-founded the Matthew Shepard Foundation with her husband Dennis to raise awareness about anti-LGBTQ violence.
The organization runs education, outreach, and advocacy programs, many focused on schools.
In a statement shared via the Human Rights Campaign, Shepard said, “This unexpected honor has been very humbling for me, Dennis, and our family. What makes us proud is knowing our President and our nation share our lifelong commitment to making this world a safer, more loving, more respectful, and more peaceful place for everyone.
“I am grateful to everyone whose love and support for our work through the years has sustained me.
“If I had the power to change one thing, I can only dream of the example that Matt’s life and purpose would have shown, had he lived. This honor reminds the world that his life, and every life, is precious.”
Shepard was instrumental in working with then-President Barack Obama for passage of the landmark Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act in 2009, which was led in the House by then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who will also be honored with a Presidential Medal of Freedom during the ceremony on Friday.
Also in 2009, Shepard published a memoir, “The Meaning of Matthew: My Son’s Murder in Laramie, and a World Transformed,” and was honored with the Black Tie Dinner Elizabeth Birch Equality Award.
“Judy Shepard has been a champion for equality and President Biden’s choice to honor her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom is a testament to what she’s done to be a force of good in the world,” HRC President Kelley Robinson said in a statement.
“A mother who turned unspeakable grief over the loss of her son into a decades-long fight against anti-LGBTQ+ hatred and violence, Judy continues to make a lasting impact in the lives of the LGBTQ+ community,” she said.
“It is because of her advocacy that the first federal hate crimes legislation became law and that countless life-saving trainings, resources and conversations about equality and acceptance are provided each year by the Matthew Shepard Foundation,” Robinson said. “We are honored that Judy is a member of the HRC family and know that her work to create a more inclusive and just world will only continue.”
Other awardees who will be honored by the White House this year are: Actor Michelle Yeoh, entrepreneur and former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Jesuit Catholic priest Gregory Boyle, Assistant House Democratic Leader Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), former Labor and Education Secretary and former U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R-N.C.), journalist and former daytime talkshow host Phil Donahue, World War II veteran and civil rights activist Medgar Evers (posthumous), former Vice President Al Gore, civil rights activist and lawyer Clarence B. Jones, former Secretary of State and U.S. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), former U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) (posthumous), Olympic swimmer Katie Ledecky, educator and activist Opal Lee, astronaut and former director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center Ellen Ochoa, astronomer Jane Rigby, United Farm Workers President Teresa Romero, and Olympic athlete Jim Thorpe (posthumous).
National
United Methodist Church removes 40-year ban on gay clergy
Delegates also voted for other LGBTQ-inclusive measures
The United Methodist Church on Wednesday removed a ban on gay clergy that was in place for more than 40 years, voting to also allow LGBTQ weddings and end prohibitions on the use of United Methodist funds to “promote acceptance of homosexuality.”
Overturning the policy forbidding the church from ordaining “self-avowed practicing homosexuals” effectively formalized a practice that had caused an estimated quarter of U.S. congregations to leave the church.
The New York Times notes additional votes “affirming L.G.B.T.Q. inclusion in the church are expected before the meeting adjourns on Friday.” Wednesday’s measures were passed overwhelmingly and without debate. Delegates met in Charlotte, N.C.
According to the church’s General Council on Finance and Administration, there were 5,424,175 members in the U.S. in 2022 with an estimated global membership approaching 10 million.
The Times notes that other matters of business last week included a “regionalization” plan, which gave autonomy to different regions such that they can establish their own rules on matters including issues of sexuality — about which international factions are likelier to have more conservative views.
Rev. Kipp Nelson of St. Johns’s on the Lake Methodist Church in Miami shared a statement praising the new developments:
“It is a glorious day in the United Methodist Church. As a worldwide denomination, we have now publicly proclaimed the boundless love of God and finally slung open the doors of our church so that all people, no matter their identities or orientations, may pursue the calling of their hearts.
“Truly, all are loved and belong here among us. I am honored to serve as a pastor in the United Methodist Church for such a time as this, for our future is bright and filled with hope. Praise be, praise be.”
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