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Washington Blade, DC, USA

DNC governing body gets first trans member

N.J. activist among committee’s six new LGBT nominees

Sep 18, 2009 | By: Lou Chibbaro Jr.

[Photo: Barbra Casbar Siperstein, president of the New Jersey

Stonewall Democrats, is the first transgender person to join the

Democratic National Committee’s governing body. (Photo courtesy of

Siperstein)]

The Democratic National Committee voted last week to welcome a

transgender woman to its ranks, the first time that a major U.S.

political party has appointed an openly transgender person to its

national governing body.

Transgender activist Barbra Casbar Siperstein, president of the New

Jersey Stonewall Democrats, a statewide LGBT organization, was among

six new LGBT people nominated Sept. 7 by DNC Chair and Virginia Gov.

Timothy Kaine for at-large seats on the 447-member DNC.

The six LGBT nominees were among 75 at-large DNC nominees that the

full DNC approved Sept. 11 during a meeting in Austin, Texas. The

additions bring the total number of LGBT people sitting on the DNC to

25, up from 15 in 2008, and boost the membership of the DNC’s Lesbian,

Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Americans Caucus to its highest level

since the party officially recognized the caucus in 1998.

“It reaffirms that we are completely a part of the Democratic Party’s

vision,” said Andy Tobias, a gay DNC member from New York who serves

as party treasurer.

Siperstein agreed. She said the addition of more LGBT people to the

DNC governing body was a significant step.

“All six of the new LGBT at-large members got named to a committee or

elected to a caucus office,” she said, “so appointments had meaning

and were not just for show.”

Traditionally, DNC members almost always approve new at-large members

to their ranks that are nominated by the party chair. A minority of

at-large members appointed by the party chair and members who are

elected by Democratic voters in cities and states across the country

help comprise the DNC.

In another development viewed as significant by gay Democratic

activists, Kaine appointed lesbian DNC member Heather Mizeur of

Maryland to the DNC’s 50-member Executive Committee.

Mizeur, a member of the Maryland House of Delegates, is the second

open lesbian to serve on the Executive Committee. The late Jean

O’Leary of California was the first open lesbian named to the DNC

Executive Committee, serving on the panel for eight years from the

late 1990s to the early 2000s, according to Rick Stafford, chair of

the DNC’s LGBT Americans Caucus.

In its first official meeting since the 2008 elections, the LGBT

Americans Caucus also voted last week to re-elect Stafford as caucus

chair. Caucus members also re-elected Sue Lovell, a Houston City

Council member, as vice chair, and gay Democratic activist Jason Rae

of Rice Lake, Wis., as secretary of the caucus.

In addition to Siperstein, the new LGBT DNC members nominated by Kaine

and approved by the full committee include Terry Bean of Portland,

Ore., co-founder of the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund, which helps elect

LGBT people to public office; Earl Fowlkes of Washington, D.C., a

member of the board of the Gay & Lesbian Leadership Institute, an arm

of the Victory Fund, and president of the International Federation of

Black Prides; Evan Low of Campbell, Calif., a member of the Campbell

City Council; Lupe Valdez of Dallas, the elected sheriff of Dallas

County; and Randi Weingarten of New York City, president of the

American Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO.

Stafford said DNC regional caucuses, which have authority to elect DNC

Executive Committee members, voted Sept. 11 to elect gay DNC members

Gary Shay of California and Tonio Burgos of New Jersey to join Mizeur

and gay DNC member Raymond Buckley as Executive Committee members.

Buckley also serves as a DNC vice chair and chair of the New Hampshire

Democratic Party.

Stafford said that in addition to approving Kaine’s appointments, the

DNC voted to approve a change in its governing charter by adding the

category of “gender identity” to its non-discrimination clause.

He said the charter change also included an official change in the

name of the LGBT caucus. Before last week’s meeting, the caucus was

listed as the Gay & Lesbian Americans Caucus. The revision changed the

name to the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Americans Caucus.