Sonia Chang-Diaz sounds off on LGBT issues

In 2006 Jamaica Plain activist Sonia Chang-Diaz drew blood in the 2nd Suffolk District Democratic primary, coming within six percentage points of defeating state Sen. Dianne Wilkerson. Now she's back for round two, campaigning against Wilkerson in the Sept. 16 Democratic primary. One of her challenges is convincing the Senate district's LGBT voters to back her over Wilkerson, one of the staunchest LGBT rights supporters on Beacon Hill.

The district includes three neighborhoods with large LGBT communities - the South End, Jamaica Plain, and Dorchester - and Wilkerson has won the backing of the LGBT community's most powerful political machine, MassEquality. Yet Chang-Diaz, herself a strong supporter of LGBT rights, said she believes LGBT voters in the district will swing her way for her progressive positions and her promise of new leadership and high ethical standards.

"I think we also saw in 2006 and again this year that one of the nicest things that has come out of the LGBT rights movement is putting forth this idea, this truth that LGBT people aren't just 'the gays.' They're neighbors and your children and they're environmentalists, and they're people who care about youth violence," said Chang-Diaz during a recent interview. "The LGBT voters in the district don't just vote gay. They also care about accountability and all these other issues, and I think that's why I did so well in heavily LGBT areas in 2006."

Accountability is a central issue in Chang-Diaz's campaign, which hopes to win over voters who have grown dissatisfied with Wilkerson over a series of high-profile missteps. Wilkerson has garnered bad press in the past for a series of incidents, including a conviction for failing to pay her federal income taxes and charges of campaign finance violations. Those missteps were front and center in the 2006 race, and the race was further complicated by Wilkerson's failure to collect enough signatures to appear on the primary ballot. Forced to run a sticker campaign, Wilkerson, with the help of MassEquality, narrowly managed to fend off Chang-Diaz, who also ran as a sticker candidate.

Since the 2006 race Wilkerson has largely avoided negative media attention, but Chang-Diaz said that voters tell her they remain dissatisfied by Wilkerson's performance, particularly her failure in January 2007 to file most of her legislation for the current session before the Senate deadline.

"I think people feel like it's hard to be as much of an advocate for very serious things we need and the very urgent changes we need when you also have to be worried about your own issues," said Chang-Diaz.

As evidence of support for Chang-Diaz in the district her campaign provided Bay Windows with the results of a benchmark poll the campaign conducted last January, before Chang-Diaz decided to run. The poll, which surveyed 355 likely Democratic primary voters across the district, found that when asked whether Wilkerson should be reelected or whether someone else should replace her, only 28 percent of voters felt Wilkerson should be reelected; nearly half said it was time for someone new. The Chang-Diaz campaign declined to release the results of a question asking voters to choose between Chang-Diaz and Wilkerson but said that Chang-Diaz won with a lead above the margin of error. Not surprisingly, Chang-Diaz's strongest base of support came from her own neighborhood of Jamaica Plain.

While Wilkerson has remained in the public eye since the last election, Chang-Diaz had largely flown below the radar before her decision to run again. Up until she got into the current race Chang-Diaz worked doing outreach for the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center, helping equip community groups and activists working on progressive causes with the center's research and analysis reports. Prior to her first run for the Senate seat she also built up some serious gay cred, doing contract work with MassEquality during the marriage debates and serving as openly gay former state Sen. Cheryl Jacques' point person on civil rights issues.

Since the last election, Wilkerson has done some high profile advocacy on behalf the LGBT community. She successfully lobbied for funding increases for LGBT and HIV/AIDS programs in the current state budget during a tight budget year, and earlier this month she led the effort in the Senate to repeal the 1913 statute that has prevented most out-of-state same-sex couples from marrying in Massachusetts. Her recent work has garnered praise from LGBT advocates, but Chang-Diaz said she does not believe the LGBT community should give Wilkerson its vote for her recent accomplishments.

"I think it's very important to recognize that Sen. Wilkerson has done important work during her time in the Senate, a lot of that on LGBT issues, and I'll be the first to salute her on that. That's hugely important. I think it's also important to remember that that's exactly what we should expect from the senator who represents the Second Suffolk district," said Chang-Diaz. "We have some of the highest concentrations of LGBT residents. We have a district that, LGBT or not, we have a district that believes overwhelmingly, firmly in defending equal rights. ... So we should not expect anything less."

Chang-Diaz said the success of her 2006 campaign, which began only three months before the primary - hence the sticker campaign - shows that she has the determination to get results for the LGBT community if she wins the Senate seat.

"You don't get from zero percent everything to 44 percent of the electorate in three months without being competent and good at achieving results against long odds. And I think our odds are not long in terms of LGBT issues in the Senate," said Chang-Diaz. "And I've worked in the Senate, I know how things work there, and building relationships, I also think hard work does in fact get you a good ways in the building."

Should Chang-Diaz win the seat, one of the issues likely to come before the Senate is the transgender rights bill, which was filed in the House this year as House Bill 1722. The bill expands the state's non-discrimination and hate crimes laws to cover gender identity and expression, and Chang-Diaz said she strongly supports the legislation. Opponents have attacked the bill, claiming that its public accommodations protections would threaten the privacy of women and children in public rest rooms and locker rooms. When asked whether she would be willing to compromise on any portions of the bill, altering the language to win broader support from colleagues on the fence, Chang-Diaz said faced similar questions during her work in Jacques's office on marriage equality and civil unions bills.

"There were a lot of tough decisions about, do we make compromises on civil unions to get [domestic partnerships], so on and so forth, or do we compromise our language on marriage in order to get civil unions? There is always a lot of internal struggle about that and a lot of internal soul searching about how much do we believe in holding fast to the values point versus political viability," said Chang-Diaz. "And I think it is really important to work with the frontline activists on those decisions, because in addition to the legislators those are people who are putting the heart and sweat equity into those fights."