Gabriel Rothblatt

Gabriel Rothblatt
File:Gabriel Rothblatt for Congress 2014.jpg
Born	1982 (age 41–42)
Residence	Satellite Beach, Florida
Occupation	United Therapeutics

Gabriel Rothblatt, born 1982, is a technoprogressive political activist, a 2014 congressional candidate, and a writer and speaker in the futurist and transhumanist movements.

Early life and education

Rothblatt was born to Bina and transgender businesswoman Martine Rothblatt. His parents founded several companies, including Sirius Satellite Radio and United Therapeutics. He is married to Taj Rothblatt, and they have four children together. Following his graduation from high school, Rothblatt attended the University of Vermont and earned a degree in Political Philosophy. In addition to political activism, Rothblatt works for MIO, LLC as a property manager, and previously managed a restaurant franchise and worked as an insurance broker. Rothblatt's great grandfather Isadore Rothblatt was a union organizer and was beaten to death by anti-union thugs because of his union activities with the Leatherworker's Union of Chicago.

Activism

Human rights

Rothblatt is an outspoken advocate for human rights. He is Black, Jewish, and comes from a LGBTQ family. In the "Dude Looks Like a Lady" benefit for the Women's Center of Brevard, Rothblatt dressed as Oprah Winfrey to bring attention to women's rights. In his November 2014 campaign, Rothblatt was endorsed by the National Organization for Women, the Teamsters Local Union 769, and he was a featured speaker at the South Brevard NAACP banquet dinner. Rothblatt is a Member Delegate of the Space Coast Progressive Alliance and Vice President of the Brevard Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Space

Rothblatt is an advocate for space, public speaker on the advantageous of investing in space settlements, and President of the Florida Space Development Council, the National Space Society's local chapter. In a talk hosted by students from SEDS, at the University of Michigan, Rothblatt advocated that space exploration should not resemble the space race but should be an endeavor of international collaboration. In a congressional debate, Rothblatt stated that he believes missions to the moon, mars, and asteroids should be a priority, and under the right plan a 1,000 people could be in space within a decade. Space was such a significant part of Rothblatt's campaign BBC News ran a story covering both candidates position on space and titled it Florida's space race: The politicians battling over the cosmos. Lisa Miller, from New York magazine, wrote that the first item on Rothblatt's platform is "space." Rothblatt has written on various space topics including spacesteading and panspermia.

Transhumanism

Rothblatt is a Pastor, Community Organizer, and member of the Board of Directors with the Terasem Movement and codirector of worldfuturist.net. Subscribers to the Terasem movement believe technology will one day make it possible to make digital copies of oneself. Peter Rothman, from Humanity+, wrote that Rothblatt may be the first openly transhumanist political candidate in the United States. Rothblatt writes and speaks on transhumanist topics, such as seasteading, cryonics, religion, mind uploading, and technological discrimination.

Political campaigns

During the 2014 Midterm elections, Rothblatt ran as a Democratic Party candidate against incumbent Bill Posey in Florida's 8th congressional district. Rothblatt qualified for the ballot through the petition method by gathering 4,936 signatures; the minimum required was 4,834. Issues of concern to Rothblatt were technological unemployment, protecting family values, promoting education, protecting the environment, developing space, and human rights. The candidates' debates covered Obamacare, abortion, military action, environmentalism, renewable energy, same-sex marriage, and the government shutdown; and according to Posey the debates demonstrated their ideological differences. Rothblatt's belief in transhumanism and his family ties were both regularly covered by the media. Jessica Roy, from Time, reported that Rothblatt's status as a member of Terasem may be just as difficult for his campaign as being a Democrat in the Republican majority district. During a campaign event, gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist introduced Rothblatt by saying “Gabriel is the messenger that God sent." Other opinions of his campaign were more critical. Katie Prill, from the National Republican Congressional Committee, wrote "his radical ideas are too extreme for Florida families." Posey's spokesman, George Cecala, stated that, "It all comes down to the real issue, and that is Bill Posey is a conservative and Gabriel Rothblatt is a liberal. Posey won the election with the majority of the vote; however, Neely Tucker from the Washington Post called Rothblatt's campaign "a respectable debut," and Dustin Ashley wrote his campaign "opens the door for other transhumanists to become part of the political action."

SpacePAC

Rothblatt was supported by SpacePAC, a Political Action Committee (PAC) founded by his parents. Under campaign finance laws, PACs are not permitted to collaborate with the candidate. Due to these restrictions, the Rothblatts were not permitted to discuss the campaign together until the election was over. The PAC drew criticism from an editorial page of the New York Times due to the family relationship between the founders of the PAC and Rothblatt's campaign. USA Today reported that Rothblatt did not know that his parents were setting up the PAC until he saw yard signs promoting his candidacy. According to William Patrick, from Watchdog.org, Posey knew of the family relationship between Rothblatt and the PAC, but Posey declined to comment. Dave Berman, from Florida Today, reported that even with the support of SpacePAC, Posey's campaign had far more funds than Rothblatt's campaign. Alex Leary, from the Tampa Bay Times reported that SpacePAC was not the first PAC to be set up by a wealthy parent to support their child's campaign.

External links

• Gabriel Rothblatt for Congress Campaign Website
• Ballotpedia Ballotpedia profile