Palm Springs — Equality California announced today its endorsement of Lisa Middleton for Palm Springs City Council. Middleton is a community leader, appointed local official and former government executive with a long history of working to improve the lives of those in the communities in which she lives.
Middleton currently serves on the Palm Springs Planning Commission and is former chair of the Organized Neighborhoods of Palm Springs (ONE-PS), a network of Palm Springs neighborhood associations that gives community members a voice for their issues and concerns. On the Planning Commission, she has advocated for increased cooperation and communication between developers and neighborhoods, increased use of solar power, the creative use of desert landscaping, downtown renewal and the elimination of abandoned buildings and blighted vacant lots.
“Lisa Middleton is one of the most qualified candidates whom we have supported in a local race,” said Rick Zbur, executive director of Equality California. “She is experienced, smart and a tireless builder of community through her work to improve quality of life for all Palm Springs residents. She has helped educate voters, make her city more environmentally sustainable and elect other LGBT candidates to city government. Her visibility in both the LGBT and broader communities has made her a role model and has created awareness and understanding of the challenges and contributions of transgender people. We’re thrilled to endorse her for Palm Springs City Council.”
In addition to her extensive experience working in government, Middleton has devoted significant service to the LGBT community. As a volunteer, she was directly involved in the effort to bring healthcare to transgender employees of the City and County of San Francisco. She serves as treasurer of the board of Equality California Institute and is on the board of the Desert LGBTQ Center, where she served as interim executive director in 2014. She also has served on the boards of Lyon-Martin Women’s Health Services and the USC LGBT Alumni Association. If she is elected, she would make history as the first openly transgender person elected to a non-judicial office in California.
Middleton moved to Palm Springs following her retirement as a respected executive with the State Compensation Insurance Fund of the State of California. She was appointed to the Palm Springs Planning Commission in 2014.
The Equality California Political Action Committee endorses viable candidates for federal and state office who have a proven track record of supporting equal rights and legal protections for LGBT Californians and who are committed to advancing these goals in their capacity as elected officials. The PAC also endorses outstanding LGBT candidates at the local level.
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Equality California is the nation’s largest statewide lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender civil rights organization dedicated to creating a fair and just society. Our mission is to achieve and maintain full and lasting equality, acceptance, and social justice for all people in our diverse LGBT communities, inside and outside of California. Our mission includes advancing the health and well-being of LGBT Californians through direct healthcare service advocacy and education. Through electoral, advocacy, education and mobilization programs, we strive to create a broad and diverse alliance of LGBT people, educators, government officials, communities of color and faith, labor, business, and social justice communities to achieve our goals. www.eqca.org
