You may have heard of activist Charlotte Clymer from her two and a half year stint as press secretary for the Human Rights Campaign (HRC). Or maybe you’ve come across her on Twitter with her other 374,000 followers where she’s gone viral for stunts like when she raised $170,000 for then-presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren by “dangling gossip.”
Now, you’ll find Clymer as the first transgender board member of LPAC, the only organization whose mission is to build the political power of LGBTQ+ women at the federal, state, and local levels.
“Charlotte Clymer has built an influential public profile as an advocate for LGBTQ equality, and transgender rights in particular,” says Laura Ricketts, LPAC Board Chair. “We are excited for Charlotte to bring her communications expertise and powerful megaphone to LPAC as we continue our important work building a political action community of LGBTQ women.”
Clymer has become a big name in the communications space, specifically on LGBTQ+ issues and women’s issues. After serving in the U.S. Army for more than six years, she served as HRC’s press secretary for rapid response and the Director of Communications & Strategy at Catholics for Choice. She currently works as a self-employed communications consultant and recently completed a fellowship at the Georgetown Institute of Politics and Public Service.
For Clymer, joining LPAC was an absolute no-brainer. “Earlier this year, I was considering launching a political action committee for trans and non-binary candidates. But I knew it would take alot of work…and I wasn’t sure I was ready to take on all that labor,” shares Clymer.
“So when LPAC reached out and asked if I would be interested in helping to elect all queer women, I felt like it was perfect timing,” says Clymer. “Here’s this organization with an amazing record who have been electing queer women for nine years. The more I thought about it, the more it made sense to join this existing team to elect not only trans women, but also queer women generally.”
Clymer has many goals for LPAC, which includes getting more queer women in Congress beyond the two in the House and two in the Senate. She also hopes to increase LGBTQ+ representation at the state and federal levels. “I think that part of the reason that LGBTQ+ issues are so easily misunderstood or so easily ignored is that our representation in elected office is abysmal.”
Given her unique position as the first transgender board member at LPAC, Clymer also wants to use her platform to encourage more transgender and non-binary candidates to run for office. “The number of transgender and non-binary people who would make extraordinary elected officials but who decided not to run because they have been discouraged by society is heartbreaking to me,” says Clymer.
When asked if she’d ever run for office herself, Clymer admits that she has thought about it, but has put the idea on the back burner since she feels it’s easier for her to use her platform to elect other LGBTQ+ candidates. For that work, she’s exactly where she needs to be, and we are so grateful.
