WASHINGTON -- Hillary Clinton will be in Washington, D.C., on Monday night for a fundraiser hosted by and attended by predominantly lesbian supporters.
About 120 people are expected to attend the event, which is being billed as "an intimate fundraiser" at the Woman's National Democratic Club. The cost to attend is $2,700 per person. For the more generous, those willing to bundle $27,000 ahead of the event also get to attend a special reception with Clinton.
The event is being hosted by Claire Lucas and her partner, Judy Dlugacz, who founded a travel company called Olivia, which sells cruises targeting the lesbian community. Lucas told The Huffington Post that she and Dlugacz decided a couple of weeks ago that they wanted to do something to support Clinton's presidential run, so they started reaching out to their network of contacts to gauge interest. The result is Monday's event, which Lucas estimates will be about 75 percent lesbian attendees from around the country. That's atypical for an LGBT political fundraiser, which are by and large organized and attended by gay men.
"We had such a big group of people wanting to attend," said Lucas, who acknowledged it is "unusual" that the event will have such a strong lesbian presence.
The Clinton event lands just as President Barack Obama has declared June as LGBT Pride Month, something he has done for several years. There are two other Pride-related fundraising events for Clinton's campaign in D.C. this week, though she is not expected to attend them.
The first, on June 10, is being hosted by gay Democratic activist Lane Hudson at the Howard Theater. The second one, on June 11, is being hosted by LGBT supporters at Lost Society. That event will include appearances by Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), the first openly lesbian U.S. senator, and four other openly gay members of Congress: Reps. Jared Polis (D-Colo.), David Cicilline (D-R.I.), Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.) and Mark Takano (D-Calif.).
Clinton is a vocal supporter of LGBT rights and featured a gay couple in the campaign kick-off video she used in April to announce her presidential run. That couple later invited Clinton to their wedding.
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