Watch Mayor Parker’s
Keynote Address
“America needs us – because our political processes are in shambles and America needs capable, competent, authentic elected officials who are willing to get in and get to work and do the jobs they were elected to do and not just point fingers and throw rhetoric at each other. Our bread and butter as an organization is local candidates, and school board candidates, and city council candidates, state rep candidates. There’s no room for shutting down government or being obstructionist – you have to get in and do things every day. “
– Mayor Annise Parker, Victory Fund President & CEO
“The fight for justice and equality is a common cause among all Americans and when Congress represents the diversity in America, we all benefits. Beyond that, I think the stakes for our community couldn’t be higher this election cycle. The fight for equal rights for LGBTQ Americans didn’t end with marriage equality, and whether you’re talking about protecting trans kids in school or protecting LGBTQ workers in their place of employment or whether you’re talking about protecting our seniors in their golden years so they don’t have to go back into the closet, there is just a lot on the line this year and it’s even more important that we elect leaders who are willing to fight for equal rights for our entire community.”
– Lauren Baer
“We’ve got, you know, across the country – especially in places like Kentucky – we’ve got great allies that can speak with heart and with passion about issues affecting the LGBTQ community, but in a lot of places, Kentucky being one of them, we have no people with the true emotional connection to that community that are standing there representing the community, so we need that representation. Out of 138 in Kentucky’s General Assembly, we have zero openly elected LGBTQ people and our allies need a little help. They need folks that are standing up there able to talk from deep inside their heart about the issues affecting the community and be able to stand up a lot of the accept bigotry that comes across our House and Senate floor.”
– Josh Mers
I think with this administration, they’re showing us every day that they are intent on ripping away the progress that we’ve made. And I’m living in Texas, right, I’m from Texas where, you know, not too long ago they were talking about the bathroom bill. So it’s not just what’s happening in Congress, it’s also what’s happening at the state legislators. We need people who are – that have the moral courage to step up and say, “nah, this is not the right way and we have to do something different.”
– Gina Ortiz Jones
