The Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund today announced it has endorsed 11 more openly LGBT candidates for public office, including Dr. Dana Beyer, whose 2010 election would make her the first openly transgender state legislator in U.S. history.

The newly-endorsed candidates are:

Brian Bates–Doraville, Georgia City Council
Dana Beyer–Maryland House of Delegates (2010 race)
David Carden–Palm Springs, California City Council
Steve Camara–Mayor, Fall Rivers, Massachusetts
Ginny Foat–Palm Springs, California City Council
Matt Haag–Rochester, New York City Council
Dave Kaplan–Des Moines, Washington City Council
Joe Lacey–Dayton, Ohio Board of Education
Lori Schreiber–Abington, Pennsylvania City Council
Dawn Segal–Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Municipal Court Judge
Barbara Smith–Albany, New York Common Council

Go to www.victoryfund.org to learn more about these candidates and how you can help their campaigns.

Doraville City Councilmember, and former Victory Fund endorsee, Brian Bates helped pass a measure that bans discrimination based on “sexual preference.” The measure, which passed unanimously, covers gay men and lesbians.

“Doraville has a large GLBT population in the city and we want to be representative of our diverse groups. We also want to attract the very best employees,” said Brian Bates, Doraville’s only openly gay council member.

Presently, the policy excludes discrimination based on gender identity.

The Southern Voice reports:

Bates, who was elected to the Doraville City Council in 2007 and is believed to be the first openly gay Republican elected in Georgia, said he did only want “sexual preference” included in the policy at this point. Bates said he believes gender identity needs to be included in the city’s nondiscrimination statement when more education takes place with city employees, administrators and residents.

“There are some nuances and we are looking at other municipalities [that include gender identity] and working with Georgia Equality and Lambda Legal,” he said.