Gabriel Rothblatt, born October 5, 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
