If you’re gay and thinking of running for public office, you may want to participate in a free training session offered by the Victory Fund.

A two hour training session will be held on Feb. 18 from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. at Red Restaurant. Shawn Werner from the Victory Fund will talk about what it takes to run a successful campaign.

The Victory Fund is the nation’s leading organization that identifies, trains and supports openly lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender candidates, campaign staff and officials.

Werner is a manager of the Victory Cabinet at the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund and Leadership Institute. He is responsible for recruiting and consulting on political campaigns in the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic regions, as well as growing and strengthening the Victory family donor base.  He served as a Victory intern in the summers of 2004 and 2005. During the Spring of 2006, he was the President and Founder of The Fight to Give Life, a national collegiate mobilization against the Food and Drug Administration’s antiquated and discriminatory lifetime ban on blood donations by gay and bisexual men.  He received his Bachelors of Arts in Political Science from Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA and resides in Washington, D.C.

“The Victory Fund’s sole purpose is to help elect GLBT people to office, and they are very successful in what they do,” explained David Taylor, a Victory Fund board member from Nashville. “They are a non-partisan organization. “

Taylor pointed out that the fund helped support Keith Durbin and Shane Burkett last year in their runs for Metro City Council.

“We were all proud when Keith Durbin made history to become Tennessee’s first openly gay elected public official,” he said. “We are eager to help elect more GLBT people in Tennessee, and we firmly believe that actually being at the political table is the most effective way to change hearts and minds as well as to be the best defense in stopping anti-gay legislation.”

The training session is part of the Tennessee Equality Project’s Advancing Equality Day on the Hill, which will be held on Tuesday, Feb. 19.

After the training, Werner will join members of TEP and others guests for a reception at Tribe from 6 to 8 p.m.  To learn more about the Victory Fund:  www.victoryfund.org. To learn more about TEP and Advancing Equality Day on the Hill:  www.tnep.org