Obama's Power Gays

Kevin Jennings (pictured)
New York

Amount raised (range): $50,000–$100,000
Occupation: CEO, Be the Change Inc.

In 1988, Jennings was an adviser to the first gay-straight alliance at an American high school as a teacher at Concord Academy in Concord, Mass. He went on to become a champion of classroom equality as the founder of the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network and later as assistant deputy secretary for the Department of Education's Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools from 2009 until June. Jennings was a target of social conservative groups, including the Family Research Council, during his Education Department tenure, but said in a post-departure interview with Media Matters, “I wasn't going to be derailed from that work by a bunch of bullies and liars.”

 

Eugene Sepulveda
Austin

Amount raised (range): $500,000+
Occupation: CEO of Entrepreneurs Foundation of Central Texas
Other political campaigns donated to this year: Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Democratic National Committee

Through his organization, Sepulveda is an advocate for nonprofit and for-profit startups and small businesses. A recipient of the Human Rights Campaign’s Lifetime Achievement Award, Sepulveda is currently working on a fund-raising event in Houston with the first lady. (Note: A previous version of this story reported that the Houston event is LGBT-specific; it is a larger event for Mrs. Obama that will include LGBT fund-raising support.)

Charles Myers
New York

Amount raised (range): $500,000+
Occupation: Investment banker, Evercore Partners
Other political campaigns donated to this year: Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.)

One of New York’s best-known Democratic bundlers may have his own congressional ambitions. “If you look at Congress, we currently have four openly gay members out of 535; it’s pretty clear that we’re massively underrepresented,” Myers told The New York Observer earlier this year, adding he’s “thinking about it” when asked if he may eventually enter the political fray.