New Lesbian Super PAC Will Champion Gay And Women’s Rights

A new lesbian super PAC called LPAC has launched to support pro-lesbian candidates and play a role in same-sex marriage ballot initiatives. The group will be led by Laura Ricketts, co-owner of the Chicago Cubs, whose father, billionaire Joe Ricketts, has raised sizable funds to oppose President Obama’s re-election. With a modest (by super PAC standards) goal of raising $1 million this year, the effort will support candidates like Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), who is hoping to become the first-ever elected openly gay Senator, as well as any other Democrat or Republican who warrants endorsement.

LPAC spokewoman Sarah Schmidt talked to the Huffington Post about the importance of a lesbian-specific fundraising effort:

SCHMIDT: Women’s voices get lost a lot and get overshadowed in almost all settings. So I think there’s a real opportunity here to engage women who haven’t been engaged before — for lesbians, in particular, to speak for ourselves about the issues that are important to us and to define those issues in our own words. It’s a chance to really have a seat at the table when these critical issues are being discussed and the policy is being developed. We want to be there. We want to be in the middle of the conversation.[...]

Part of the reason why we’re mobilizing right now is because of what’s been going on in the political conversation and what we’ve been hearing coming from the Republican Party around these issues that’s been so disheartening. We would really hope that we can find some Republican candidates to support. I’m not sure that’s going to happen this cycle.

LPAC has already secured some high-profile supporters, including actress Jane Lynch, sports icon Billie Jean King, LGBT leader Urvashi Vaid, and former Provincetown Banner published Alix Ritchie.