Longtime LGBTQ- and human-rights activist Rick Garcia announced he is running
for the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (MWRD), and has asked Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker to appoint him to the seat Debra Shore is vacating to run the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) Midwest operations.
"I have spent my life working for human rights and the betterment of our communities," said Garcia in a statement. "There is no more basic human right than clean water."
"I have been working with a campaign team for months preparing for this race," he said. "With Debra Shorea member of the LGBTQ communityleaving, I feel even more compelled to running. Representation matters."
Garcia's accomplishments include, among other things, being inducted into the Chicago LGBT Hall of Fame (in 1999); co-founding Equality Illinois; and helping to lead successful efforts to pass the Illinois Equal Marriage Act, Illinois Human Rights Act, City of Chicago and Cook County domestic-partnership ordinances and the City of Chicago Human Relations Ordinance.