Fresno Stonewall Democrats met yesterday for our monthly membership meeting and determined the following endorsements of candidates running for positions in the California Democratic Party (CADEM):

Delaine Eastin for California Democratic Party Chair

Betty Yee for California Democratic Party Vice-Chair

For other recent and past endorsements please visit our Endorsements page

Click here to register for this meeting
Click here to view and/or download the Agenda, Minutes, and other documents

Guest speakers this month:

Later this month is the International Trans Day of Visibility and we will have Zayn Anthony (He/Him/His), recently elected Chair of Trans-E-Motion, to speak with us about it. After Zayn we have Michael Evans here to talk to us about important redistricting issues…

Zayn Anthony (He/Him/His) is the current 2021 Chair for Trans- E- Motion and served on the board last year as a Member At Large. He also holds the 2018 title of “Mr. Tranz Fresno For Life,” through the Imperial Dove Court of Fresno, and was 1st Alternate in the Mister California USofA MI drag king pageant in 2013. With or without the titles, sashes and crowns, Zayn is an educator, activist and community leader, and is constantly thinking of new ways to help our LGB and specifically the “T” community and allies of all ages through fundraising, workshops and events.

Michael D. Evans currently serves as the chair of the Central California Coalition for Equitable Realignment (CCCFER), which is an organization monitoring the redistricting process of legislative bodies in the Central Valley. He is also a board member of Leadership for Jobs and a New Economy (LJANE), the Central Valley Partnership (CVP) and the Central Valley Progressive PAC. Moreover, he is on the Editorial Board of the Community Alliance newspaper.

Michael has served on community groups advocating for immigration rights, women’s rights, the homeless and civility in media. For the 2020 election, Michael was an area director for the Central Valley with the California Democratic Party’s Coordinated Campaign. He previously was chair of the Fresno County Democratic Party (FCDP) for 10 years also serving as a delegate to the Democratic State Central Committee and a representative to the California Democratic Party E-Board. (see attachment for a more extensive bio)

Endorsement Meeting:
CADEM Officer and Regional Director Elections are coming up in April. We will be voting to endorse CADEM candidates at this meeting. Club members in good standing and who have been a member for at least 30 days prior to this meeting may participate in the voting process.

Updates & Presentations:
Myra will give us results of the AD Elections, Tyler will update us on the Tower Theater issue, and James Martinez will give us new information on the project to honor Zoyer Zyndel. Committee Reports will be given by our legislative and fundraising committees.

We’ve made some additions to our Legistlative Committee’s report section here on our website. At this time we’ve included all previous reports in a downloadable PDF format. We’ve also added some links near the top with useful and informative information such as selected YouTube videos to educate you on political processes, a link to our party’s platform documents, a list of LGBTQ congress members, and a downloadable list of all U.S. Senators and their contact information.

Let us know what other changes you’d like to see on our website!

Please join us at our second meeting of the year, this coming Tuesday, February 9, 2021 at 5:30 PM. Last month’s meeting was a bit long for some of us, packed with many speakers and topics. This month we hope to keep the meeting to a more reasonable length of time!

ANNOUNCEMENT of Endorsement Meeting:

California Democratic Party elections are in April. We will be voting to endorse CA DEM Party candidates at next month’s meeting on March 9, 2021. Club members in good standing and who have been a member for at least 30 days prior to the March 9 meeting may participate in the voting process at that meeting.

Last month we heard from Betty Yee and Diana Love. This month we have the following candidates scheduled to speak:

Rusty Hicks — current Chair, running for re-election
Delaine Easton — former Superintendent of Schools, Candidate for Chair
Jenny Bach — CA Dem Party Secretary, Candidate for Female Vice-Chair
Melahat Rafiei — Candidate for Secretary

All six of these candidates mentioned above will be considered for endorsement at the March 9 meeting.

Click here to register for this meeting
or
Click here for more details on our event calendar

Fresno Stonewall Democrats Legislative Committee has released this month’s report for your review. You can read it or download it on our new Legislation page at https://fresnostonewalldemocrats.org/legislation

California Democratic Party elections are in April and we are honored to have the following candidates as our speakers this month:

Betty Yee, Ca State Controller & Candidate for Vice President
Melahat Rafiei, Candidate for Secretary
Diana Love, Candidate for Secretary

Our community lost a very special friend and fellow activist, Zoyer Zyndel, on December 26, 2020. Zoyer was an inspirational person and a driving force among several organizations in and around Fresno. Longtime friend of Zoyer’s, Beverly Senkowski, will speak to us about him and his involvement in our community.

Executive Officers will be voted on after hearing our speakers. Voting will be conducted using the anonymous polling feature in Zoom.

Updates & Presentations:

• Tyler Mackey will update us on the Tower Theater sale.
• James Martinez will announce a special project to honor Zoyer Zyndel.
• Peter Robertson will give a presentation on a new Fresno State Scholarship in memory of Zoyer Zyndel.

Please join us this Tuesday via Zoom for the last meeting of 2020! We’ll be nominating members for our Executive Board and Jen Cruz from Fresno EOC’s LGBTQ+ Resource Center will speak to the group about their “Wish List”.

Join fellow Democrats online and watch the local, state and national election results come in. Register via:

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZwoduCoqjwjE9QPtHrvpC7ucr23k45XbvYp