Forty local organizations spearheaded by The Center have joined forces in an effort to harness the GLBT vote for the November elections. Called “LGBT San Diego Delivers the Vote”, this nonpartisan campaign, similar to another GLBT voter mobilization effort called GLBT Vote 2004, seeks to increase the percentage of GLBT voters in San Diego to 7 percent from its current average of 5 percent.

“It’s easy for someone to think that their one vote won’t make a difference. But it’s not just one vote,” said Stephen Whitburn, president of the San Diego Democratic Club, which advocates on behalf of GLBT rights. “If we vote as a community – as a group of LGBT individuals and organizations… The potential is enormous. It just takes each individual and group to do their part.”

The voter campaign comes during a particularly trying year of politics for the GLBT community, with President Bush endorsing a proposed Federal Marriage Amendment to ban same-sex marriage, and in California, HIV/AIDS funding cuts, the Marriage License Non-Discrimination Act (AB 1967) being shelved in the State Assembly until next legislative session and other GLBT-friendly legislation facing uphill battles.

“Next year, the California legislature will consider a bill to allow gay and lesbian couples to marry,” Whitburn said. “The bill will only pass if we elect Christine Kehoe, Lori Saldaña, Patty Davis and other Democrats who will vote for it. Their Republican opponents, who oppose marriage equality, may raise more money before the election but we will still win if we get more voters to the polls. That’s why it’s so important that every LGBT person register and then vote.”

Court challenges to recently enacted legislation, such as California’s Domestic Partner Rights and Responsibilities Act (AB 205) and Massachusetts’ legalization of same-sex marriage, threaten the basic civil rights of the GLBT community as well.

Though LGBT San Diego Delivers the Vote is a nonpartisan collaboration, it does not bar participating organizations from endorsing candidates.

“We’re involved in the campaign because it’s critical to the LGBT community that we elect Democrats and because the overwhelming majority of LGBT individuals are Democrats,” Whitburn said. “The reasons are obvious: The Democratic Party platform affirms ‘the right of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people to equal, dignified, respectful treatment and privacy,’ while the Republican Party platform says ‘homosexuality should not be presented as an acceptable alternative lifestyle.’”

Among the efforts the San Diego Democratic Club and other collaborators will undertake is a voter registration campaign targeting the GLBT community at numerous summer events including Pride, Ebony Pride, Latin Pride, AIDS Walk, North County Pride and larger city events like CityFest. In addition, SDDC will mail out a voter guide to GLBT-friendly households and will go door-to-door encouraging people to vote for Democratic candidates.

GLBT Vote 2004 is another get-out-the-vote campaign taking place in San Diego, started as a national campaign in 2000 after a GLBT march on Washington took place. GLBT Vote 2000 was brought to San Diego by John McCusker, owner of Club Montage and Rebar, and has been actively getting out the vote to the younger GLBT and people of color communities every election cycle since, said City Commissioner Nicole Murray Ramirez, a GLBT Vote 2004 board member. GLBT Vote 2004 is also a bilingual operation, and works all six GLBT Latino nights at San Diego area bars.

Unlike LGBT San Diego Delivers the Vote, GLBT Vote 2004 endorses candidates, though they, too, are nonpartisan.

“First we make people aware that they need to register,” Murray Ramirez explained. “Once they are registered, it can’t end there. We must educate them on deadlines, like for absentee ballots, and on which candidates are good on GLBT issues and other issues important to minority populations. Whereas the San Diego Democratic Club, for example, can only endorse Democrats, we can endorse any candidate, and we have endorsed both Republicans and Democrats. … We need to educate people on every facet of elections, for those that aren’t used to voting.”

LGBT San Diego Delivers the Vote and GLBT Vote 2004 will help each other out, he added.

Murray Ramirez is among those who will speak at The Center’s July 16 Community Coalition Breakfast, which will focus on the LGBT San Diego Delivers the Vote campaign. Ebony Pride Co-Chair Ken Riley, Bienestar Regional Director Carolina Ramos and Family Matters Board of Directors member Lisa Bagot will also speak.

Sponsoring organizations for LGBT San Diego Delivers the Vote include: American Cancer Society; American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of San Diego & Imperial Counties; American Veterans for Equal Rights (AVER); Asian Pacific Islander Community AIDS Project (APICAP); Being Alive San Diego; Bienestar; Bisexual Forum; Diversionary Theatre; Ebony Pride San Diego; Equality California; Family Matters; Front Runners San Diego; the Gay & Lesbian Times; GLBT Vote 2004; Greater San Diego Business Association (GSDBA); Human Dignity Foundation; Immigration Equality San Diego Chapter; Imperial Court de San Diego; Institute for Transgender Education; J*PRIDE; Log Cabin Republicans San Diego; Marriage Equality California (MECA); Metropolitan Community Church (MCC); Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG); Primetimers San Diego; San Diego Area Pride at Work; San Diego Democratic Club; San Diego Men’s Chorus; San Diego County NOW; San Diego LGBT Pride; Scouting for All; San Diego State University LGBT Student Union; Special Delivery San Diego; Transgender Community Coalition; UCSD LGBT Resource Center; Update; Victory Foundation; and Victory Fund.