A prominent Maryland transgender activist has left Sen. Hillary
Clinton’s presidential campaign and begun stumping for Sen. Barack
Obama.
Dana Beyer, an Equality Maryland board member who is transgender,
announced last week she was leaving Clinton’s gay steering committee to
join Obama’s gay leadership council.
“It’s time to stop squabbling amongst ourselves, pull together and take
back the presidency,” she wrote in a letter explaining her decision. “I
say this with respect for the Clintons, and I say it as a woman who has
had to fight every day of her life to simply be a woman, and be
recognized as one, let alone a strong one.”
Beyer, whose affiliation with Clinton’s campaign was announced in
November, said she’s received no negative reactions to the switch.
“I haven’t heard anything negative from my Clinton-supporting friends,
and I’ve gotten a lot of support from my Obama-supporting friends,” she
said. “I was surprised by the outpouring of support I got from Obama
supporters. I thought this would be a complete non-issue.”
Beyer said she made her decision after hearing Obama’s “positive,
uplifting and courageous” speech on race, and concluding that Clinton
has “little to no chance” of overtaking Obama’s delegate tally. Beyer
is not a superdelegate.
According to CNN tallies, Obama led Clinton this week in pledged delegates and superdelegates, 1,626 to 1,486.
But Maggie Williams, Clinton’s campaign manager, said in a statement released this week that the race remains close.
“After 46 primaries and caucuses, by virtually every measure, Hillary
Clinton and Barack Obama are neck and neck,” she said, “separated by
roughly 130 of the more than 3,100 delegates committed thus far and
less than 1 percent of the 27 million-plus votes cast, including
Florida and Michigan.”
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