Dana Beyer (File photo by Henry Linser)
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JOSHUA LYNSEN
Friday, April 04, 2008
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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