Chicago Cubs co-owner Laura Ricketts
has said women are more likely to get involved in politics when it's
lesbian focused.
Ricketts and Chicago businesswoman
Sarah Schmidt earlier this month launched LPAC, a first-of-its-kind
political action committee to support political candidates and causes
that appeal to lesbian voters.
Organizers said they hope to raise a
modest $1 million for the 2012 election cycle.
Speaking on WBEZ's Eight
Forty-Eight, Ricketts said her conservative parents supported
her when she came out lesbian.
“When I came out to my parents … I
didn't know how [they] would react,” she said. “They're very
conservative. But they're also very supportive people. And my dad
said, 'You always hold your head up high and be proud of who you are,
cause I am. You're a leader. Get involved.'”
“Being a woman and being gay in our
society, you have a couple of pretty big challenges. … [So] it's
really important that more women get engaged. I feel like the more
women we have in government, the better our government will be.
Women aren't as likely to get engaged, aren't as likely to organize.
[They're more likely to do] so when it's women centric and lesbian
focused.”