Crossposted at Asian Pacific Americans for Progress.
This fall, on opposite coasts, two gay Asian Americans are running for local office. In the suburbs of Atlanta, we have Alex Wan who is running for City Council, District Six. Alex is the Director of Development for Jerusalem House, Atlanta's oldest and largest provider of permanent, supportive housing for homeless or low-income individuals and families living with HIV/AIDS. He was also a candidate for the Georgia State Assembly back in 2004, but lost. From his bio:
Business acumen
Engineer by training with hands-on business, management and finance experience
Has balanced budgets, met payroll
Understands both the revenue and the expense side of challenges and solutions
Knows how to make difficult choices when resources are scarce
Wide breadth of long-time community service
Member of the Morningside Lenox Park Neighborhood Association; 15+ year Morningside resident
Morningside Lenox Park Association Business Liaison for 2008
Graduate of Leadership Atlanta and Leadership DeKalb, and chaired the latter
Serves on the Board of Directors of the Atlanta Development Authority (Treasurer and Finance Committee Chair)
Former Atlanta Volunteer Chair and Atlanta Federal Club (donor circle) Co-Chair for the Human Rights Campaign
Founded and served as the first president of an all-volunteer non-profit benefitting socio-economically disadvantaged children
On the board of the Asian American Heritage Foundation
Previously served on the Insurance Commissioner’s Better Georgia Executive Round Table and the Governor’s Small Business Advisory Council
I recently spoke with Alex and he'd love any financial support he can get. Check him out if you're interested.
Alex recently resigned from the Atlanta Development Authority Board to clear up any perception of a conflict of interest. In July, some district residents voiced concerns that Wan and Liz Coyle, one of his opponents in the Nov. 3 election, served on the ADA and Atlanta Beltline Inc. boards while also running for office. Coyle resigned from her post last week.
On the other side of the country, we have Republican Fred Chang who is running for re-election to the Port Orchard City Council. Chang, a self-professed "radical centrist", is actually a former Democrat who wrote extensively on why he switched parties. I am not sure where he stand today on such progressive issues as health care reform and immigration, but Fred recently received the endorsement of the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund. If the LGBT movement wants to build bridges with other progressive movements, they should be wary of supporting candidates who don't support other key planks of a progressive agenda.