Our LGBT community is steadily growing into an essential and substantial component of San Diego’s political fabric. That will be even more apparent on Nov. 8 during the special election, as we cast our ballots for the next mayor of San Diego.

Our right to vote gives us numerous opportunities to create different possibilities. Voting is one way to speak out and stand up. It’s private, and it’s powerful. We cannot continue on our road to empowerment and full equality without voting. We must exercise our right to vote as a political act of defiance, of liberation and of freedom.

That’s why I believe it’s so critical that our LGBT community turns out for this special election. I believe we bear a broader responsibility to participate, to stand up and be counted. We must make certain that all communities and political players know that we can and will vote – in every election. Only when every politician knows that we are a community they must negotiate with or face us in the polling place will we consistently be taken seriously.

In order for us to continue to build true and effective coalitions, we must not be single-issue voters. Instead, we must respond to all of the concerns that are related to our struggle. Right now, we need strong and effective coalitions to beat back the ballot measures that will directly target us next year. Over the next few months, we’ll be asking our friends and allies for their support as California’s LGBT community faces a constitutional amendment ballot measure that seeks to repeal existing domestic partnership protections and create a permanent ban on marriage for same-sex couples. We will need them, and right now they need us.

The struggle over the right to privacy and the right to choose are issues directly related to our LGBT concerns. If the right to privacy were to become further diluted or eroded, the underpinning of our recent Supreme Court victory against sodomy laws would be eliminated. The constitutional right to privacy was critical in our success in striking down sodomy laws that for far too long have made us criminals in too many states.

Not only do our longtime choice allies need us, they are fighting for principles that are the foundation of many of our own protections. That’s why The Center has taken an official position on Proposition 73, and why we encourage you to vote no on this measure.

The opposition tells us it’s about parental notification in the event that a minor seeks an abortion. They’ll say, “If you were a parent, wouldn’t you want to know?” I am a parent, and of course I would! But that is not the question before us. The question is, “If a17-year-old woman could not talk with her family about her pregnancy, should she be forced to come before a judge and explain her family dynamics and sexual situation?” We believe the answer is a resounding “No.”

Why might a young girl be unable to speak with her family and what may she not want to reveal in open court? Child welfare and family violence research gives us the chilling answer: One in every five young women and one in every 10 young men have been sexually assaulted by the time they are 18 years old, and in more than 70 percent of these cases the sexual offenders are known to the victims – boyfriends, stepfathers, fathers, uncles, co-workers, classmates, members of their churches or friends of the family.

This measure would require minors to notify their parents of their intent to terminate their pregnancy, even if a family member was responsible for the pregnancy! Clearly this doesn’t protect these young girls, but would likely cause them more harm.

The Center encourages you to vote no on Proposition 75. This is a measure that proposes to limit the ability of public employee labor unions to advocate for the needs of their members. It violates the constitutional right of association by allowing the government currently in power to limit how a private, democratically-run organization communicates with and advocates for its members.

Allowing partisan politics to interfere with political advocacy simply because the party in power doesn’t like the positions of private organizations is a slippery slope that doesn’t serve Californians. Already there are other propositions being circulated in California and nationally to further limit how even more organizations can participate in our democratic society. In a democracy, the voices of many can and should be heard. The litmus test for who is allowed to participate cannot be whether or not one group likes what a different group advocates for. That’s anti-democracy and un-American, and that’s why we encourage you to vote no on Proposition 75.