About 70 people attended a reception for Chrissy Gephardt this past Saturday in University Heights. The event raised $4,200 each for the San Diego Democratic Club and the National Stonewall Democrats. San Diego was the first stop on a tour of U.S. cities where Chrissy Gephardt, the openly lesbian daughter of U.S. Congressmember Dick Gephardt, will be working to galvanize gay and lesbian voters.

Chrissy Gephardt joined National Stonewall Democrats recently as the organization’s director of grassroots campaign corps. She and NSD Executive Director Dave Noble are traveling across the country trying to establish chapters in states such as Michigan, while working to strengthen established chapters and urge people to get to the polls this fall.

Speaking to a crowd, Gephardt urged those in attendance – already activists, she noted – to move outside their comfort zone and share their personal stories with straight co-workers, neighbors and acquaintances. Sharing those stories personalizes the larger issues the GLBT community is struggling with, such as same-sex marriage, she said.

Though the daughter of a high profile D.C. politician, Gephardt said that didn’t shield her from experiencing her own share of discrimination. She recalled how when her partner wound up in the hospital, she was denied any information on her condition – though she explained their relationship clearly to hospital administration.

Gephardt said she had also experienced discrimination on her last job. “Not on my dad’s campaign,” she joked to hearty laughter, “but the job before that.”

Gephardt, who received her education in social work, said that though her friends all had photos of their husbands and boyfriends on their desks, she was not allowed to have a picture of her partner on her desk at her last job.

Introducing Gephardt, U.S. Congress-member Susan Davis had words of praise for her father and their working relationship in Washington, D.C. She referred to Chrissy Gephardt’s mother, Jane, as one of the “classiest” women she knew.

Announcing the amount of money raised at the event, Nobel said San Diego would be the fundraising standard by which NSD would hold other cities accountable. “The San Diego Democratic Club is now undoubtedly one of the top shining stars out of the 90 clubs across this country that now are part of this organization,” he said. Noble called SDDC a shining star that NSD could point to when forming new chapters or trying to get lagging chapters back on their feet.

“When I was in college, San Diego was this place that everybody knew as the Republican stronghold in California,” he said. “Now, thanks to great groups like the San Diego Democratic Club, we’re electing all these great, open lesbian members to our city council and soon our state Senate. What an example of the difference we can make when we organize, when we form chapters, and when we go out and do this sort of work — and this is exactly what we’re doing all across the country in targeted states that we need to be working in, to make sure that the successes you’ve seen locally in San Diego are copied at the White House, in Congress and in state legislatures down the line.”

“The money raised at this event for the San Diego Democratic Club is going to be used … like it hasn’t ever been used before to advocate for LGBT equality and to help elect the candidates locally who are going to support LGBT equality,” added SDDC President Stephen Whitburn. “We San Diegans have more representation on the board of National Stonewall Democrats than virtually any other jurisdiction in the nation outside of Washington, D.C.”