Windy City Media Group Frontpage News

THE VOICE OF CHICAGO'S GAY, LESBIAN, BI, TRANS AND QUEER COMMUNITY SINCE 1985

home search facebook twitter join
Gay News Sponsor Windy City Times 2023-09-06
DOWNLOAD ISSUE
Donate

Sponsor
Sponsor
Sponsor

  WINDY CITY TIMES

Former Chicagoans host $1.4 million fundraiser for Obama in D.C.
by Tracy Baim, Windy City Times
2012-02-09

This article shared 23833 times since Thu Feb 9, 2012
facebook twitter pin it google +1 reddit email


Dr. Nan Schaffer and Karen Dixon, a married couple formerly of Chicago, hosted a $35,800-per-person LGBT fundraiser for President Obama's re-election campaign Feb. 9 in their Washington, D.C. home.

Chicago Cubs owner Laura Ricketts, also a lesbian, introduced the president at the event, which raised about $1.4 million from the estimated 40 people in attendance. Ricketts said the event was being held "to show the president that the LGBT community stands strongly behind his reelection," according to a White House reported filed by print pool reporter David Boyer. "I know the president stands with us," she said.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius was also at the fundraiser.

Chicagoans Fred Eychaner, Wally Brewster and his partner Bob Satawake, who coordinated the dinner, all attended as well. Ricketts, Satawake and Brewster are LGBT co-chairs of the re-election campaign.

Schaffer is a veterinarian who specializes in rhino insemination techniques. She is a minority shareholder in Windy City Media Group. Schaffer co-founded Outlines newspaper in Chicago in 1987 ( with this reporter ) , and Outlines purchased and merged with Windy City Times in 2000. Windy City Times is owned by Windy City Media Group.

Her partner Dixon is an attorney, and serves on the national board of Lambda Legal, a legal organization working for the rights of LGBTs.

The couple are well-known in Chicago for their support of LGBT causes.

Schaffer and Dixon were legally wed in Vancouver in 2008, and held a "Celebration of Marriage" with hundreds of friends and family later that summer in Chicago.

"It was an honor and privilege to host President Obama and many of the esteemed leaders of the LGBT community in our home for this historic event," Schaffer and Dixon said. "The Obama presidency has marked a decisive positive change in the advancement and standing of the LGBT community, which is unprecedented in the history of this country. Every American that values fairness must utilize the resources at their disposal to ensure that President Obama serves a second term. Many of our basic human rights are at stake in this election and the contrast between Barack Obama's leadership and the Republican frontrunners' agenda could not be starker. As the President stated at the event, fairness is 'at the heart of the American Dream.' In the LGBT community--that is all we've ever sought."

Andrew Harmon of The Advocate reported that other event hosts were David Bohnett, former U.S. Ambassador James Hormel, Henry van Ameringen, Tim Gill and Scott Miller.

David Boyer, the pool reporter covering the event for print media, reported that an official said the money would go to Obama Victory Fund, a joint committee authorized by Obama for America and the Democratic National Committee.

Outlines is the newspaper that covered Obama in 1996 during his first run for office, when he expressed his full support of same-sex marriage. So it is ironic that Schaffer hosted Obama in her home some 16 years later, when he is "evolving" on his positions, perhaps closer to his original full support of same-sex marriage.

Schaffer was inducted into the Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame in 2004. As reported on the Hall of Fame Website, Schaffer's LGBT philanthropy began when she moved to Chicago in 1981: "In the years since, she has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to causes, political candidates, and organizations such as IMPACT, Equality Illinois, Horizons Community Services, Center on Halsted, AIDS Foundation of Chicago, Open Hand Chicago, Lesbian Community Cancer Project, Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, Howard Brown Health Center, About Face Theatre, Gerber/Hart Library, and Windy City Media Group."

Horizons honored Schaffer with its Human First Award in 1995.

The Hall of Fame also noted: "As a veterinary doctor, Schaffer is internationally renowned as the foremost expert on rhinoceroses and reproduction. During more than two decades, she has published numerous articles in academic journals and has lectured around the world on dwindling rhinoceros and other mammalian populations and how to preserve them through reproductive management." She founded SOS Rhino to help protect the animals.

Schaffer told one interviewer: "One of the great tragedies of the 21st century will be humanity's homogeneity. Everywhere, everything will be the same. That which we could not tame or imitate will be gone. No matter how hard we try, we cannot 'build' nature. We can build another bridge, paint another picture, but we cannot make another rhino. Look into a really wild animal's eyes. When the wild things have gone, we will lose our place, our way; for whose eyes will we look into to find our humility, our humanity?"

Here is a link to a related story and photo spread from Schaffer and Dixon's 2008 wedding at Chicago's Drake Hotel: www.windycitymediagroup.com/lgbt/Schaffer-and-Dixon-wedding/18860.html .

Here is a video interview with the couple for the Chicago Gay History project: www.chicagogayhistory.com/biography.html .

Also see: "Obama once backed full gay marriage, Windy City Times releases 1996 survey answers," www.windycitymediagroup.com/lgbt/Obama-once-backed-full-gay-marriage/20229.html .

Following are Obama's remarks at the event:

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. ( Applause. ) Thank you, Laura, for the wonderful introduction—the best introduction that a Cubs fan has ever given me. ( Laughter. ) The rivalry is fierce in Chicago, but I'll make an exception here.

And I want to thank Karen and Nan for opening up their incredible home. ( Applause. ) To all of you, and to everybody who helped put this together, thank you so much. I am very grateful.

I'm going to be very brief at the top, because I want to—usually in these things I like to spend most of my time in a conversation. I do want to acknowledge that I have as good a Cabinet as I think any President in modern history has had. And one of the stars of that Cabinet is sitting right here, Kathleen Sebelius. ( Applause. )

All of America has gone through an incredibly difficult, wrenching time these last three years. And it doesn't matter whether you are black or white, whether you are Northern or Southern, rich or poor, gay or straight; I think all of us have been deeply concerned over these last three years to making sure that our economy recovers, that we're putting people back to work, that we stabilize the financial system. The amount of hardship and challenge that ordinary families have gone through over the last three years has been incredible. And there are still a lot of folks hurting out there.

The good news is that we're moving in the right direction. And when I came into office, we were losing 750,000 jobs a month, and this past month we gained 250,000—that's a million job swing. ( Applause. ) And for the last 23 months, we've now created 3.7 million jobs. And that's more than any time since 2000—or, yes, since, 2005—the number of jobs that we created last year, and more manufacturing jobs than any time since the 1990s.

So we're making progress on that front now, but we've still got a long way to go. Today, we announced a housing settlement, brought about by our Attorney General and states attorneys all across the country. And as a consequence, we're going to see billions of dollars in loan modifications and help to folks who are seeing their homes underwater. And that's going to have a huge impact.

In my State of the Union, we talked about the need for American manufacturing—companies coming back, insourcing, and recognizing how incredibly productive American workers are; and our need to continue to double down on investments in clean energy; and making sure that our kids are getting trained so that they are competing with any workers in the world, and are also effectively equipped to be great citizens and to understand the world around them.

And we talked about the fact that we've got to have the same set of values of fair play and responsibility for everybody—whether it's Wall Street or Main Street. It means that we have a Consumer Finance Protection Board that is enforcing rules that make sure that nobody is getting abused by predatory lending or credit card scams. It means that we have regulations in place that protect our air and our water.

And it also means that we ensure that everybody in our society has a fair shot, is treated fairly. That's at the heart of the American Dream. For all the other stuff going on, one thing every American understands is you should be treated fairly; you should be judged on the merits. If you work hard, if you do a good job, if you're responsible in your community, if you're looking after you family, if you're caring for other people, then that's how you should be judged. Not by what you look like, not by how you worship, not by where you come from, not by who you love.

And so the work that we've done with respect to the LGBT community I think is just profoundly American and is at the heart of who we are. ( Applause. ) And that's why I could not be prouder of the track record that we've done, starting with the very beginning when we started to change, through executive order, some of the federal policies. Kathleen—the work that she did making sure that hospital visitation was applied equally to same-sex couples, just like with anybody else's loved ones. The changes we made at the State Department. The changes we made in terms of our own personnel policies. But also some very high-profile work, like "don't ask, don't tell."

And what's been striking over the course of these last three years is because we've rooted this work in this concept of fairness, and we haven't gone out of our way to grab credit for it, we haven't gone out of our way to call other folks names if they didn't always agree with us on stuff, but we just kept plodding along—because of that, in some ways what's been remarkable is how readily the public recognizes this is the right thing to do.

Think about—just take "don't ask, don't tell" as an example. The perception was somehow that this would be this huge, ugly issue. But because we did it methodically, because we brought the Pentagon in, because we got some very heroic support from people like Bob Gates and Mike Mullen, and they thought through institutionally how to do it effectively—since it happened, nothing's happened. ( Laughter and applause. ) Nothing's happened.

We still have the best military by far on Earth. There hasn't been any notion of erosion and unit cohesion. It turns out that people just want to know, are you a good soldier, are you a good sailor, are you a good airman, are you a good Marine, good Coast Guardsman. That's what they're concerned about. Do you do your job? Do you do your job well?

It was striking—when I was in Hawaii, there is a Marine base close to where we stay. Probably the nicest piece of real estate I think the Marines have. ( Laughter. ) It is very nice. And they have this great gym, and you go in there, you work out, and you always feel really inadequate because they're really in good shape, all these people. ( Laughter. ) They're lifting 100-pound dumb bells and all this stuff. At least three times that I was at that gym, people came up, very quietly, to say, you know what, thank you for ending "don't ask, don't tell."

Now, here's the thing. I didn't even know whether they were gay or lesbian. I didn't ask—because that wasn't the point. The point was these were outstanding Marines who appreciated the fact that everybody was going to be treated fairly.

We're going to have more work to do on this issue, as is true on a lot of other issues. There's still areas where fairness is not the rule. And we're going to have to keep on pushing in the same way—persistently, politely, listening to folks who don't always agree with us, but sticking to our guns in terms of what our values are all about. What American values are all about.

And that's going to be true on the issues that are of importance to the LGBT community specifically, but it's also going to be true on a host of other issues where we're just going to have to make persistent steady progress. Whether it is having an energy policy that works for America; whether it is having an immigration policy that is rational so that we are actually both a nation of laws and a nation of immigrants; whether it's making sure that as we get our fiscal house in order we do it in a balanced way where everybody is doing their fair share to help close this deficit. It's not just being done on the backs of people who don't have enough political clout on Capitol Hill, but it's broadly applied and everybody is doing their fair share.

On all these issues, my view is that if we go back to first principles and we ask ourselves, what does it mean for us as Americans to live in a society where everybody has a fair shot, everybody is doing their fair share, we're playing by a fair set of rules, everybody is engaging in fair play—then we're going to keep on making progress.

And that's where I think the American people are at. It doesn't mean this is going to be smooth. It doesn't mean that there aren't going to be bumps in the road. It's not always good politics—sometimes it's not. But over the long term, the trajectory of who we are as a nation, I believe that's our national character. We trend towards fairness and treating people well. And as long as we keep that in mind, I think we should be optimistic not just about the next election, but about the future of this country.

Thank you. ( Applause. )


This article shared 23833 times since Thu Feb 9, 2012
facebook twitter pin it google +1 reddit email

Out and Aging
Presented By

  ARTICLES YOU MIGHT LIKE

Gay News

Chicago Ald. Ray Lopez running for Chuy Garcia's Congressional seat 2023-10-04
- Openly gay Chicago Ald. Ray Lopez (15th Ward) declared his candidacy for Congress against progressive leader and incumbent U.S. Rep. Jesus "Chuy" Garcia—setting up a March 2024 Democratic primary showdown ...


Gay News

Former Illinois GOP chair joins Personal PAC board 2023-10-03
- Former Illinois Republican Party chair Pat Brady has joined the board of Personal PAC, a pro-choice organization, Politico Illinois Playbook reported. The move is considered controversial within the Republican Party ...


Gay News

Gavin Newsom chooses Black queer activist to fill Feinstein's Senate seat 2023-10-02
- California Gov. Gavin Newsom—fulfilling a promise to appoint a Black woman to the seat—tapped queer Democratic strategist Laphonza Butler to fill the Senate post held by the trailblazing Dianne Feinstein, who died on Sept. 29, The ...


Gay News

Groundbreaking U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein passes away at 90 2023-09-29
- Dianne Feinstein—the oldest member of the U.S. Senate and the longest-serving senator from California—has passed away at age 90. Feinstein had planned to retire at the end of her 2024 term, according to CNBC. Shecast her ...


Gay News

GLAAD: GOP primary debate includes question on anti-LGBTQ+ violence, candidates duck 2023-09-28
--From a press release - GLAAD: "Instead of addressing the critical issue of the safety and rights of all Americans, GOP primary candidates ignored the rise in violence and hateful rhetoric aimed at the LGBTQ community and our allies. Several chose ...


Gay News

WORLD African efforts, HIV in Amsterdam, Donatella Versace, 'The Queen in Me' 2023-09-28
- A new attempt to prevent the recognition of and equal rights for LGBTQ+ people in Kenya through a constitutional amendment has been introduced in Parliament, The Washington Blade reported. The move was in response to this ...


Gay News

NATIONAL Bisexual politicians, DADT, NBJC awards, crimes, Buttigieg 2023-09-28
- For Bi Visibility Day (Sept. 23), The Advocate ran a piece titled "35 Bisexual Politicians You Should Know." Just a few on the list include trans Montana state Rep. Zooey Zephyr, Nevada Assemblymember Cecelia Gonzalez, U.S. ...


Gay News

New report: Attacks on LGBTI rights strongly associated with democratic backsliding globally 2023-09-27
--From a press release - A new report from the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law finds that countries that are highly accepting of LGBTI people tend to have high levels of liberal democracy, such as free and fair elections ...


Gay News

Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoes some LGBTQ+ measures and approves others 2023-09-25
- For California's LGBTQ+ community, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom has made things interesting over the last few days. Late last week, Newsom vetoed three progressive measures—including an unexpected rejection of a ...


Gay News

Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoes some LGBTQ+ measures and approves others 2023-09-26
- For California's LGBTQ+ community, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom has made things interesting over the last few days. Late last week, Newsom vetoed three progressive measures—including an unexpected rejection of a ...


Gay News

Arrests, fights punctuate battles across Canada over gender diversity in schools 2023-09-21
- Arrests were reported in the Canadian cities of Ottawa, Halifax, Vancouver and Victoria, among others, on Sept. 20 as opposing groups clashed on how schools address issues of gender identity and how teachers refer to transgender ...


Gay News

WORLD French fund, mausoleum, Abrazo Grupal, Biden, Billie Jean King 2023-09-21
- French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna announced a fund to help promote the rights of LGBTQ+ people, French24 reported. She made the announcement at the 15th anniversary of an LGBTQ+ group at the United Nations at the ...


Gay News

NATIONAL Sarah McBride, TIME100 lists, Kentucky clerk, suspects arrested 2023-09-21
- A poll showed that Delaware Democrat Sarah McBride—who is bidding to become the nation's first openly transgender member of Congress—leads her primary opponents by a wide margin, The Hill reported. In a survey of likely Democratic ...


Gay News

Pritzker and Brady-Davis honored at Planned Parenthood gala 2023-09-17
- On the evening of Sept. 14, Planned Parenthood Illinois Action (PPIA) and Planned Parenthood Illinois Action PAC (PPIA PAC) organizations presented their annual Fighting Forward Gala fundraiser. The event shone ...


Gay News

NATIONAL Lesbian politician, Nancy Pelosi, bomb threat, politician dies, Lyft 2023-09-15
- Kathy Kozachenko—the first out politician elected to public office in the country—will be honored with a statue on the 50th anniversary of her historic election, per The Advocate. The city of Ann Arbor, Michigan, will honor ...


 


Copyright © 2023 Windy City Media Group. All rights reserved.
Reprint by permission only. PDFs for back issues are downloadable from
our online archives.

Return postage must accompany all manuscripts, drawings, and
photographs submitted if they are to be returned, and no
responsibility may be assumed for unsolicited materials.

All rights to letters, art and photos sent to Nightspots
(Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago
Gay and Lesbian News and Feature Publication) will be treated
as unconditionally assigned for publication purposes and as such,
subject to editing and comment. The opinions expressed by the
columnists, cartoonists, letter writers, and commentators are
their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of Nightspots
(Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago Gay,
Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender News and Feature Publication).

The appearance of a name, image or photo of a person or group in
Nightspots (Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times
(a Chicago Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender News and Feature
Publication) does not indicate the sexual orientation of such
individuals or groups. While we encourage readers to support the
advertisers who make this newspaper possible, Nightspots (Chicago
GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago Gay, Lesbian
News and Feature Publication) cannot accept responsibility for
any advertising claims or promotions.

 
 

TRENDINGBREAKINGPHOTOS







Sponsor


 



Donate


About WCMG      Contact Us      Online Front  Page      Windy City  Times      Nightspots
Identity      BLACKlines      En La Vida      Archives      Advanced Search     
Windy City Queercast      Queercast Archives     
Press  Releases      Join WCMG  Email List      Email Blast      Blogs     
Upcoming Events      Todays Events      Ongoing Events      Bar Guide      Community Groups      In Memoriam     
Privacy Policy     

Windy City Media Group publishes Windy City Times,
The Bi-Weekly Voice of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Trans Community.
5315 N. Clark St. #192, Chicago, IL 60640-2113 • PH (773) 871-7610 • FAX (773) 871-7609.