Hi <<First Name>>,
For our last FYI Friday of 2021, we wanted to recap the amazing year we've had thanks to you. Be sure to scroll down to the bottom and register for our Wednesday meeting if you haven't already!
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Raised Over $145,000 for Equality
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With one virtual and two in-person events this year, we had our most successful fundraising year in recent Caucus history! Across our three events, we raised over $145,000 for our pro-equality efforts. Let's recap them all quickly!
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In March, we celebrated the Black community while raising money for the C4 at Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing. The virtual event, produced by Harrison Homer-Guy, honored Tommie Ross, Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, and the late Reverend Vickey Gibbs. It was so good we held a rescreening in April! Total, the event raised $18,125.
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In June, we held our first in-person fundraising event since the pandemic, our Coming Out Summer Fling! A fundraiser for the PAC, it was hosted by Former Mayor Annise Parker and Kathy Hubbard and honored our five out and proud judges with the John Paul Barnich Justice Award. Total, the event raised $22,700.
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Our most successful event of the year was our in-person 12th Annual Equality Brunch: United in Equality, presented by Mayor Sylvester Turner.
Chaired by Mario Gudmundsson and emceed by Lisa Foronda Harper, the Equality Brunch raised funds for the PAC to help us elect our slate of pro-equality candidates this past Fall. The afternoon included a special appearance by Pennsylvania State Representative Malcolm Kenyatta, as well as our annual Caucus award presentations. It was our most successful fundraiser in recent Caucus history, raising $104,550.
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We would like to extend a sincere thanks to everyone that made these events such a huge success and for helping us raise a whopping $145,375! Whether you donated, attended, spoke, or volunteered, we would not have been able to have these events without your support. We're greatly looking forward to events in 2022!
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Hosted Our First Representation Matters Membership Drive
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On Saturday, May 22, The Caucus hosted Representation Matters: A Celebration of Women and the Gender-Expansive Community at Pearl Bar Houston. It was a membership drive event specifically aimed to increase the number of women and gender-expansive Caucus members, and we ended up signing up 17 new members with 16 being recurring memberships.
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This past year, we continued to build upon GOTV expansion efforts from 2020. For the 2021 General Election, we hired more poll workers and expanded from one to four locations total; West Gray, TSU Terry Library, West End, and Bayland.
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Thanks to support from the Teachers' Union, we also were able to hold phone banks where phone bankers made over 2,500 calls to potential voters. In April, we also held a Volunteer Deputy Voter Registrar training in partnership with the Harris County Elections Administrator's Office. Lastly, we held some voter registration events in the community including a bar crawl in celebration of National Voter Registration Day!
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The 87th Legislative Session
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This legislative session was extremely challenging and unlike anything we expected. To keep our membership informed, we co-hosted three legislative session debriefs with community organizations and State legislators in April, June, and September. We want to thank all of our partner organizations again, particularly the Transgender Education Network of Texas, Equality Texas, and Texas Civil Rights Project, as well as State Senators Carol Alvarado, Boris Miles, and John Whitmire and State Representatives Ann Johnson, Ron Reynolds, Jon Rosenthal, Penny Morales Shaw, Shawn Thierry, and Gene Wu for making these debriefs a success.
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We also sent Caucus Board Members to Austin twice to testify against the anti-trans sports bills during two different special sessions. While the bill ultimately passed in the last special session, we were proud to have members of our leadership present at lege to defend young Trans Texans.
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Increased Community Engagement
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The Board was hard at work this year engaging various community groups to foster relationships both old and new on a wide-range of issues. When we moved out of our office at the Montrose Center, the Board decided to donate the office furniture to OLTT. The Caucus also supported The Normal Anomaly Initiative's Marque Awards event during Black Trans Empowerment Week. Lastly, at our December to Remember Holiday Party, we supported the Montrose Center and the LGBT Chamber of Commerce by collecting non-perishable food donations for their annual Holiday Food Drive.
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Board members also engaged the Houston Police Department and their newest LGBTQ resource officer, Office Bonaiby, a delegation from the Israeli National Defense College, and a roundtable of Houston LGBTQ leaders with Congressman Al Green at various meetings throughout the year.
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We want to thank every single one of our members for making 2021 such an incredible year. We hope you have safe and happy celebrations this weekend, and look forward to seeing everyone at our meeting next week!
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Register for the Wednesday Meeting
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This is a friendly reminder that our December monthly membership meeting will be held on Wednesday, January 5 at 7 PM on Zoom. We're asking you to register for the meeting here. A reminder we will be credentialing for the District G Endorsement Meeting happening immediately after our general body meeting. Email membership@thecaucus.org with membership questions.
General questions? Email info@thecaucus.org.
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