Four years ago, our community did not know what to expect from Dick Murphy. Few in the LGBT community supported his candidacy in 2000. But rather than reject us, Mayor Murphy embraced and accepted our community as a constituency whose voices are important and valuable to the future of our city.

Mayor Murphy has opened many doors for the LGBT community to serve and participate with the mayor’s office and the City of San Diego. The mayor formed a Mayor’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Advisory Board, with whom he has met regularly. During his first term, Mayor Murphy appointed 23 LGBT individuals to City of San Diego boards and commissions. I was honored that the mayor appointed me to the Citizens’ Equal Opportunity Commission, as the first transgender person in the history of the City of San Diego (and the third in the nation) to serve on a city board or commission.

Most recently, Mayor Murphy honored our community again by appointing our friend, Councilmember Toni Atkins, as deputy mayor – making her the first member of the LGBT community to serve in that position in the city’s history. Together, Murphy and Atkins have co-sponsored and presented resolutions from the San Diego City Council each year to recognize San Diego LGBT Pride and other important occasions in our community.

Mayor Murphy has a long list of accomplishments that will help improve the lives of many in our community. To name a few: the mayor supported adding protections for transgender individuals to the City of San Diego’s Human Dignity Ordinance; supported modifying the city’s pension system to give domestic partners equal pension benefits as married persons; and provided Community Development Block Grant funds for HIV/AIDS organizations and the San Diego LGBT Community Center. He has also been visible each year at our annual Spirit of Stonewall Rally during San Diego LGBT Pride – the first San Diego mayor to do so.

As a transgender, I knew from the very beginning in my life that I was different and unique. It pains me that there are still people who do not accept me for who I am. Over the last four years, I have gotten to know Dick Murphy. He has always welcomed me with a smile and a warm embrace. As a member of the Mayor’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Advisory Board, I have seen firsthand Dick Murphy’s honesty and integrity, and I am pleased to consider him my friend.

In November, our community will help choose who will be mayor of San Diego. I know in my heart that Dick Murphy has the vision, compassion and experience to lead our city for the next four years. On Nov. 2, I ask you to join me to reelect Dick Murphy as mayor of San Diego.