John:

Victory Institute’s Candidate & Campaign Trainings have been making headlines for quite some time. In fact, a colleague recently shared a CNN article with me from July 2002 (throwback!).

That was when running as an out and proud candidate was still a bit of a novelty. There were only 223 out elected officials in the U.S., with only three out members of Congress. Sixteen states had not elected an out elected official. As one leader of a “family-values” organization put it, "Homosexuality in politics isn't going to fly. That's not what America needs at this time."

But despite all that, 19 LGBTQ+ leaders joined Victory Institute back then to learn how to run for office. In the here and now, Victory Institute just trained 40 LGBTQ+ people from around the country at our Orlando Candidate & Campaign Training!

Demand for our trainings has only increased – so much so that we unfortunately have to turn people away. Will you make a generous donation to increase our training capacity and increase “homosexuality in politics”?

In every training I attend, I’m reminded that LGBTQ+ people continue to defy the predictions of bigots like the one above. In fact, there are more out leaders than ever before - over 1,173 LGBTQ+ elected officials (many of whom trained with Victory Institute!) currently hold office.

It’s clear that our trainees are the leaders that America needs at this time – that’s why they keep winning! And with your help today, we can keep our trainings going, ensuring more out leaders have the tools and resources they need to run for office. Will you make a generous donation to power our work and build LGBTQ+ political power in states like Florida, South Dakota and Texas?

Thanks for your support,

Itay Balely
Pronouns: he|him|his
Director of Training, LGBTQ+ Victory Institute