The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) held a meeting this week to identify individuals interested in creating an HRC community for San Diego. Organizers on both local and national levels said they hope to reflect the diversity and uniqueness of San Diego’s GLBT community and allies by creating a San Diego chapter.

“There are currently 33 HRC chapters in communities across the nation, and San Diego is not one of them,” said Brian Lacklen, a local realtor who is helping to organize the HRC steering committee locally. “Being the eighth largest city in the United States, many people feel it is time that San Diego joins those other cities.”

HRC says it is the largest and most respected GLBT political organization in the country working to achieve GLBT equality. The organization seeks to improve the lives of GLBT Americans by advocating for equal rights and benefits in the workplace, ensuring families are treated equally under the law, and increasing public support among all Americans through innovative advocacy, education and outreach programs. In addition, HRC works to secure equal rights for GLBT individuals and families at the federal and state levels by lobbying elected officials, mobilizing grassroots supporters, educating Americans, investing strategically to elect fair-minded officials and partnering with other GLBT organizations.

If there is enough support from local community members, San Diego will join New York, Chicago, Dallas, Houston and Seattle, as well as several other major U.S. cities to help advance the civil rights of the GLBT community.

California currently has chapters in Los Angeles and San Francisco, as well as a chapter that encompasses Orange County, Palm Springs and Long Beach, said Stampp Corbin, a former national HRC board member, who recently moved to San Diego and is working closely with local activists to help gauge interest in developing a steering committee. “There has been some opposition to forming a local HRC chapter in San Diego, and past attempts have been unsuccessful because HRC endorsed incumbent Republican Congressmember Brian Bilbray over Democratic candidate Peter Navarro in the 1996 election for California’s 50th Congressional District,” Corbin said.

Corbin said that past leaders at the national level did not have ties to local constituents with whom to consult about such elections.

However, according to Nicole Murray-Ramirez, a former national HRC board member who attended the meeting, that is not accurate. “I was a member of the board of directors. While I supported the candidate in question personally, I knew that the local community did not, and I recommended that they not make that endorsement,” Murray-Ramirez said.

“What HRC is about is bipartisanship, and I just ask that local community members not hold the organization to a standard of perfection,” Corbin responded. “At the end of the day, we are fighting for the rights and equality of everyone in the GLBT community.” David Paul, a national HRC representative, explained that by gauging the current interest of the local community, the organization hopes to form a steering committee and eventually make San Diego an emerging chapter. “Nothing has formed as of yet, but we hope that enough people are interested to make a larger presence in San Diego,” Paul said.

In order to do so, the steering committee must follow strict guidelines, which include a commitment of at least 20 hours per month from 10 members who will lead the steering committee. Additionally, 18 federal club members must donate $100 per month to the national organization. “Donations of local money may come out of local chapters and go to Washington, D.C., but it eventually comes back to serve the local community through legislation efforts and advancing corporate equality,” Paul said.

In 2006, the HRC defeated a second attempt to write discrimination into the nation’s Constitution, leading the fight against the Federal Marriage Amendment by lobbying in Washington, D.C., mobilizing grassroots advocates and exposing the anti-gay politics behind the campaign, making headlines across the country. It also invested more than $5 million in the 2006 elections and mobilized 650,000 members and supporters to participate in campaigns and to vote.

“Currently, with 750,000 paying members, we have a goal to reach 1 million members soon,” Corbin said. He noted that anyone can join the organization simply by paying a $35 membership fee. “HRC membership has nearly doubled from 400,000 paying members in the last five years, and we hope that members of the San Diego community help us in our fight for GLBT equality,” he concluded.

For more information about the emerging HRC community in San Diego, contact Brian Lacklen at 619-823-7904 or brianlacklen@aol.com.