The San Diego Democratic Club (SDDC) announced April 29 it has rated Carl DeMaio, an openly gay candidate for the San Diego City Council District 5 seat, “unacceptable.”

“We feel that his election to the City Council would not only be disadvantageous to the community, but also dangerous for the LGBT community in San Diego,” said SDDC president Andrea Villa.

As the SDDC’s lowest possible rating, its use is rare in any election cycle and is reserved for candidates who are antithetical to GLBT and progressive rights in San Diego. Its use for a gay candidate is unprecedented in the club’s 32-year history.

Villa said that the primary reason for the rating was DeMaio’s overwhelming incompatibility as a candidate with the SDDC’s mission, which is to elect GLBT and GLBT-friendly Democrats to office.

While DeMaio, an openly gay, registered Republican who is running for a nonpartisan race, was eligible for an “acceptable” rating (the club’s highest recommendation for a Republican), he instead earned the lowest possible rating given by the SSDDC, that of “unacceptable.”

DeMaio, however, didn’t seem disappointed by the SDDC’s rating.

“So a partisan Democrat club finds a Republican unacceptable. Go figure,” he said in a statement. “I just hope that after the election they’ll put partisan politics aside and join me in fixing the city’s financial problems.”

But Villa said the club has serious questions about whether DeMaio, an openly gay man, will support issues “of the most basic importance” to his own community if he is elected. “We are especially concerned by the fact that one of his campaign’s biggest supporters has bankrolled the latest attempt to permanently prevent Mr. DeMaio’s own LGBT community from obtaining basic human rights here in California,” she said.

DeMaio’s first campaign fund-raiser was held last year at the home of San Diego developer Doug Manchester and his wife, Elizabeth, who have donated the maximum amount allowed for a couple to donate to a City Council campaign.

Earlier this year, Manchester donated $125,000 to ProtectMarriage.com, the political committee collecting signatures to place a proposition on the ballot in November inserting a ban on same-sex marriage into the California Constitution.

In March, Manchester told The San Diego Union-Tribune that his Roman Catholic faith drove him to donate to the anti-same-sex-marriage movement.

“When they say that we cannot say that a marriage is between a man and a woman, that’s where I draw the line,” Manchester said.

Last month, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), PlanetOut and the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) all cancelled events planned to be held at the Manchester Hyatt during San Diego LGBT Pride Week in July.

“We believe it is telling that three national LGBT rights organizations have so quickly disaffiliated themselves from any dealings, regardless how inadvertent they may have been, with Mr. Manchester,” Villa said, noting that as a gay man DaMaio should have distanced himself from Manchester long ago.

“DeMaio is showing no interest, no support and no advocacy for his own community. We are more than disappointed,” she said.