For the first time, an openly transgender Democrat has been elected an officer of a state party. Laura Calvo was elected Treasurer of the Democratic Party of Oregon. From the press release by Stonewall Democrats:
Today, the Stonewall Democrats congratulated Laura Calvo upon her election this week as Treasurer of the Democratic Party of Oregon. Calvo, a seasoned Democratic operative, becomes the first openly-transgender officer of a state Democratic party. A member of the Board of Directors for National Stonewall Democrats, Calvo also serves as Chair of the Oregon Stonewall Democrats and as Treasurer of the Multnomah County Democrats. Multnomah County, which includes the city of Portland, is the largest county in the state of Oregon.
Laura Calvo was a Hillary Clinton delegate to the Democratic National Convention this summer and then served on the LGBT Steering Committee for the Obama/Biden campaign. She was also a campaign adviser to successful Blue America candidate Jeff Merkley, just sworn in as Oregon’s newest Senator.
Laura Calvo:
"I’ve counted Senator Merkley as a friend since the time that we both served together in local Democratic politics," said Calvo, referring to freshman United States Senator Jeff Merkley. "I tell friends that the most effective way to pass legislation on the national level is to have elected officials who first know us as friends back home. That’s why our community was so passionate about electing Senator Merkley. Our friendships and activism in Oregon helped to shape his elected service on the state level, and those relationships continue after he has moved into the halls of Congress. Stonewall Democrats has built those types of relationship across the country. Democratic activism is a way of shaping the direction of pro-equality issues and as Treasurer of the Democratic Party of Oregon, I not only get to shape the direction of pro-equality issues, but the direction of my state party as well."
Calvo is the second LGBT officer of the state’s Democratic Party, joining Vice Chair Frank Dixon. The Democratic Party of Oregon mandates strong support for issues of equality, including the freedom to marry.
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Dugg right here, please join me!
I am in tears of joy. Thank you Dems of Oregon, and thank you Teddy for reporting this!
This will enable Merkley to be a powerful Senate advocate for iENDA, knowing Laura so well.
excellent! thank you teddy.
This is a Victory for all our Gay and Lesbians friends and citizens!
I still can’t believe that this is news! It shouldn’t be. The subject to me is not news. Why it is news is just a sad comment on politics and prejudice in the US.
Oregon still needs to either overturn their ballot measure that defined marriage between a man and a woman that was passed in 2006 OR a new ballot measure redefine it.
Hi Katy how ya doing? And yes Oregon is in the same boat as California! Both of the states citizens need to rectify this codification of denying rights to our citizens just because of they are gay or lesbians! Lets hope all Americans realize that denying rights is just plain wrong and against the constitution.
Hey, it’s good news…)
Not to disagree, Nahant, but this is a ‘victory’ for all who value fundamental civil rights and the essential humanity of every human being.
It is also the realization of the basic American Principle of Equality and of the universal yearning for Fairness and Respect.
It is as ‘American’ (at its best) as the proverbial apple pie (even if the religiously self-righteous initially choke on it).
;~D
I agree….
Maricopa County Democrats (AZ) the 4th largest county in the US last two year term had an gay as Treasurer and if I went through the list of officers I could find more either current or past. Now I can’t say for transgender but we have a state representative who is BI which many met in Chicago during the 2nd Yearlykos.
We have the same here….. prop 102 passed with McCain making ads for it.
Now that is something I would pay to see!
ET is upstairs at the Mother ship Pups.
I would suggest, Nahant, that a very huge payment, many painful years’ worth, has already been made to the angry bigots, the fearful haters and their crazed ‘leadership’, not to mention the blind ‘indifference’ which the ‘law’ has paid to basic assaults upon equality and justice.
I suspeculate that as momentum is gained, we shall witness unhinged apoplexy and brutal denial until the critical mass of understanding is reached. (We are getting closer to such understanding, every day … and we shall have ‘arrived’ when, as kimmy suggests, it is no longer ‘news’.)
Well, it is news in that it’s new.
At some time in the future, perhaps it won’t be news.
And yes, it’s probably sad that it’s news, but that doesn’t make it not-news, does it?
Bravo and thanks for sharing this Teddy.
Happy to see it happen. I have a friend — very famous — who transgendered at an advanced age. I’d known him (now her) for 35 years as a colleague, and when I learned of the change I thought it was a bad joke. It took a while to adjust to. It’s not easy for people my age, and I think for people of any age. It was tough on his(her) kids, and they haven’t reconciled.
I know some others who’ve gone through the change. I guess it’s all for the best, but I feel sorry for them. Born with a genetic disorder. The ones I know were at first extremely self-centered — it’s the big thing in their lives, you know. But the rest of us have lives, too, and it gets tiresome. And the men never really stop being men, even after the change. I’m talking about doing the dishes and picking up towels off the bathroom floor and such.
I’m happy people are accepting. It’s important. But I still feel very sad for those who have to go through the change.
Let’s celebrate the dawn of a political climate change where we leave the tired and obsolete practice of prejudice and intolerance to face the music of loving acceptance and dance together.
I’m glad I lived long enough to see this happen.
Hurray!
Portland is also the largest US city with an openly gay mayor, Sam Adams.