One Equal World: Victory Fund

Want to change the world? Use your voice and get involved! Or, in this case, support those who are using their voices and getting involved!

The Victory Fund, founded in 1991, strives to, “change the face and voice of America’s politics and achieve equality for LGBT Americans by increasing the number of openly LGBT officials at all levels of government,” according to the organization’s website.

In an interview with Critical Thinking, through Gay Chicago TV, Victory Fund founder Chuck Wolfe discusses the fund’s mission, speaks about few of the thousands of LGBT politicians the Victory Fund has supported in the past and continues to aid, and his shares his philosophy on achieving equal rights for LGBT communities.

Technically, the Victory Fund is split into 2 entities:  the Victory Fund and the Victory Institute. While the fund is used to financially support candidates that the organization endorses, the Victory Institute prepares candidates to enter public office and helps them advance their reach once they are in office.

At the moment, the Victory Fund is endorsing eight high-profile candidates currently running for office. Tammy Baldwin is running for a position in the U.S. Senate as a representative of Wisconsin. If elected, she will be the first “out” member of the United States Senate Several Victory Fund candidates are also running for the House of Representatives. They are Mark Pocan (Colorado) who would be the first gay man elected to Congress who was already out at the time of the election, David Cicilline (Rhode Island), Richard Tisei (Massachusetts), Sean Patrick Maloney (New York), Kyrsten Sinema (Arizona), and Mark Takano (California).

When asked about the importance of having LGBT representation in political areas where no LGBT officials have been elected, Wolfe replied, “The idea is that the government represents the people who live here. So when we’ve realized that there aren’t certian people in a legislative body, it’s time for that legislative body to look like the people it represents.”