Stonewall Young Democrats

The Stonewall Young Democrats, also known as SYD, are youth-based organization across the country which are part of the LGBT-rights group in the United States, affiliated with the National Stonewall Democrats and with the Democratic Party. There are several chapters of Stonewall Young Democrats, including the first chapter which was started in Los Angeles, San Diego, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio.

Stonewall Young Democrats
Founded 2004
Location Los Angeles, California
Website http://www.stonewallyoungdems.org

Los Angeles Chapter

The group serves the greater Los Angeles County region but mostly holds it meetings in the West Hollywood area due to its central location to the Greater LA region. The group's website describe themselves as "a community of passionate progressives excited about the political and societal issues of the day who want to give voice to their priorities and take action in a grassroots community-oriented manner on matters of both local and national prominence."

Stonewall Young Democrats is growing to include other cities across the country as well.

Stonewall Young Democrats was founded in 2004 by John Cleary and Andrew Lachman, both members of the Los Angeles Stonewall Democratic Club, who wanted to start a youth-oriented version of the club, recognizing the need for younger membership. The Los Angeles chapter of Stonewall Democratic Club has for years attempted to create a youth-centric version of itself to get younger gays and lesbians involved with politics but was only able to do so when large amounts of gays and lesbians rallied in support of Howard Dean for his 2004 Presidential campaign. It was only the night when Dean lost his bid for the Democratic Primary that Andrew and SYD Founding President John Cleary sat down and wrote the draft of the group's bylaws, surrounded by people who would become the Founding Members of Stonewall Young Democrats.

SYD is an affiliate of the Los Angeles Stonewall Democratic Club as well as members to other groups such as the Los Angeles County Democratic Party, the Democratic Party of the San Fernando Valley (DP/SFV), the California Democratic Party, Young Democrats of America, and National Stonewall Democrats.

2017–2018 Executive Board of the Los Angeles Chapter
President Chris Bowen
Operation Vice-President Mason Brown
Political Vice-President Ari Ruiz
Community Vice-President Marcus Lovingood
Communications Vice-President Sasha Perez
Secretary Ashley McCormick
Male-At-Large Alfonso Somilleda
Female-At-Large Araselle Torres

San Diego Chapter

Stonewall Young Democrats of San Diego was founded in 2005 by Jonathan Goetz and Allan Acevedo. Under its initial inception, SYDSD was started as the youth branch of the San Diego Democratic Club.[1]

Dallas Chapter

Though there had been previous Stonewall Young Democrat chapters in Dallas, the current Dallas Stonewall Young Democrats (DSYD)[2] chapter was founded in March 2009.

This chapter serves the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex and surrounding areas. Meetings are usually held in the Oak Lawn area.

DSYD held its inaugural meeting on March 29, 2009 at Woody’s Sports Bar. The chapters bylaws were approved by those present and club officers were elected.

The group was founded in time to charter with the Texas Young Democrats at the Austin convention, and was quickly accepted by the Texas Stonewall Democratic Caucus with the support of the Stonewall Democrats of Dallas.

DSYD is a youth branch of Stonewall Democrats of Dallas (SDD) and therefore each member of DSYD also has voting rights in SDD. Due to the nature of this relationship, one member of the SDD board sits on the DSYD board and one member of the DSYD board sits on the SDD board.

The Red Party

The original organizers of the group were all volunteers at Legacy Founders Cottage, an AIDS hospice in Oak Cliff, where they built a friendship based on community service and activism. Since its inception, DSYD has maintained a close relationship with the Legacy Founders Cottage and continues to provide support in the form of volunteer hours and by hosting benefit fundraisers.

2010–2011 Executive Board of the Dallas Chapter[3]
President Pennington Ingley
Vice President Vacant
Secretary Jared Pearce
Treasurer Justin Williams
Membership Director Clint Thomson*
Community Events Director Edgar Negron
Political Director Jennifer Allen
Communications Director Michael Maldonado
Liaison from SDD Kenneth Denson

*Liaison to Stonewall Democrats of Dallas.

Membership

Membership to Stonewall Young Democrats is open to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Intersex (LGBTI) individuals and its straight Allies who are under age 36 (40 in Texas), as to comply with the California Young Democrats requirement of all its Young Democrats groups that charter with them.

  • Any persons under 36 (40 in Texas) can either become At-Large Members or Active Members:
    • Active Membership: Individuals who are of qualifying age and who have paid may vote at any General Membership meeting, run for any of the elected offices, participate in committees, and represent SYD in Democratic events. An individual must be a member of good standing for a period of at least twenty-five (25) days before voting in a meeting.
    • At-large Membership: Any person meeting age and Democratic registration requirements who wishes to be a member without paying dues shall be granted At-large membership. At-large members receive all privileges except the privileges of voting, filing and running for SYD office, representing Stonewall Young Democrats at any Democratic event, automatic membership into Stonewall Democratic Club or any other affiliated organization.

References
  1. Stonewall Young Democrats of San Diego. "Stonewall Young Democrats of San Diego - SYDSD". web.archive.org. Archived from the original on 2008-05-11. Retrieved 2018-05-04.CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  2. "Facebook | Dallas Stonewall Young Democrats" Facebook.com, Dallas Stonewall Young Democrats Fan Page
  3. "Dallas Stonewall Young Democrats | About Us" DallasSYD.org, About Us Section Archived April 4, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
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