Northeastern student launches campaign for gay cabinet member

Paul Sousa, a 21-year-old Northeastern student and one of the lead organizers of last month's Join the Impact protest against Proposition 8 at Boston City Hall, is hoping to rally the LGBT grassroots to bring about an historic first: the appointment of an openly gay person to President-Elect Barack Obama's cabinet. Sousa launched an online campaign last week called Equal Rep to urge Obama to appoint labor activist Mary Beth Maxwell as Secretary of Labor. Maxwell, who is openly gay, has won already won the endorsements of the AFL-CIO and Human Rights Campaign, among several other organizations.

As with the Join the Impact protest, Sousa is organizing and building support for the Equal Rep campaign primarily through the social networking site Facebook. Sousa has asked all participants to both call and e-mail Obama's transition team once a day from Dec. 17 through Dec. 19 and ask them to appoint Maxwell as labor secretary. At least 900 people have confirmed their participation, and Sousa hopes to have at least 1000 people take part in the campaign.

"Each day that would be 2000 contacts, times three days. That's 6000 contacts, and of course somebody's going to notice," said Sousa.

He said he sees the campaign as a grassroots version of the Victory Fund, which provides funding and training to LGBT candidates for office. If the campaign is successful or generates enough buzz Sousa said he may try it again to advocate for openly gay appointees to other offices.

Sousa said he believes that Maxwell, the founder and executive director of the labor advocacy organization American Rights At Work, is a strong, highly qualified candidate for Secretary of Labor, and he believes Obama should take the historic step and appoint the country's first openly gay cabinet member.

"Our representation does matter, and of course you don't choose someone just because they bring diversity to the table, but if they're a highly qualified candidate and they bring that, then it's all the better," said Sousa. "But you see all these glass ceilings being shattered for people of color, for women, and it really feels like gay people are the only ones not getting there."

To participate in the Equal Rep campaign visit www.equalrep.com.