Description
The San Diego Democratic Club (now called San Diego Democrats for Equality) was founded by Bob Lynn in 1975 at a time where
even among democrats, there was a lack of support for LGBT issues in politics. The founding members had some difficulty finding
30 people willing to write their names on a charter as they feared being outed. Some non-LGBT friends offered their names
for the charter in order to meet the 30-person requirement. The SDDC gained traction in the 1980’s by using computers to create
LGBT voter lists and produced the first voter information guide to help get LGBT-friendly candidates elected to office. During
the AIDS crisis, the SDDC lost members and two former Club presidents – Dr. Brad Truax and Doug Scott – and became actively
involved with Life Lobby, an organization that helped lobby for greater awareness of AIDS/HIV issues. The women in the SDDC
became involved with the Blood Sisters. In the 1990’s through the 2000’s, the San Diego Democratic Club assisted Christine
Kehoe’s 1993 City Council campaign and Toni Atkins’ (an SDDC Vice-President) 2000 city council campaign, which led to her
becoming the first openly-lesbian mayor in San Diego.