Helen Gym

Helen Gym ( ; ko, 김혜련, born January 11, 1968) is an American politician. The daughter of Korean immigrants, she was the first Asian American woman to serve on the Philadelphia City Council. She was first elected to Council in 2015 and served until 2022, when she resigned to run in the 2023 Philadelphia mayoral election.

A member of the Democratic Party, Gym is a former school teacher and community organizer who cofounded Parents United for Public Education and served on the board of Asian Americans United. While on City Council, she became known as a progressive voice and focused on issues like housing, education, youth issues, and worker’s rights.

Early life

Gym was born in Seattle, Washington, and raised in the suburbs of Columbus, Ohio. Her parents were born in Korea and immigrated to the United States in the 1960s. Her father was a computer engineer who worked for Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company. Her mother worked in the food services department at the Ohio State University. Gym has a younger sister. When Gym was growing up, the family attended the Protestant Korean Church.

In 1993, Gym graduated from the University of Pennsylvania where she majored in history. After leaving college, she returned to Ohio and worked for the ''Mansfield News Journal'' as a reporter. In 1994, she worked as a teacher. In 1996, Gym completed her language acquisition master's degree at the University of Pennsylvania.

Career

Gym has worked as a grassroots community organizer in Philadelphia and has been involved in education reform there since 2006. Around that year, she co-founded the Parents United for Public Education. She is a member of the editorial board of Rethinking Schools and one of the founders of The Philadelphia Public School Notebook, a nonprofit, independent, free news service. She also co-founded a charter school in Chinatown called the Folk Art Cultural Treasures School.

In 2000, Gym led a campaign called the "Stadium Out of Chinatown Coalition" against the construction of a baseball stadium north of Chinatown, due to the fear that it might result in gentrification of the area.

She has also led other campaigns. In 2008, she fought against the establishment of the proposed Foxwoods Casino planned near Philadelphia's Chinatown because of the concern that unchecked development would compel longtime residents of that area to move away. She has also organized in opposition to state-sponsored, predatory gambling.

In 2009, she worked on a successful federal civil rights case to help stop the bullying and harassment of Asian American students in South Philadelphia High School.
The case came about partially due to a series of assaults at the school on December 3, 2009, when as many as thirty Asian immigrant students were attacked and beaten by large groups of African-American students. In her testimony, she called for the commission to require the school and district officials bear responsibility for not addressing the problem, to differentiate bias-based harassment and generalized violence, and take a different approach for each, and to develop effective anti-harassment policies and procedures.

In 2020, Gym made a cameo on Netflix's '' Queer Eye'' to advise a young activist featured on the show.

Philadelphia City Council

In January 2016, Gym succeeded newly elected mayor Jim Kenney as a Democratic member of the Philadelphia City Council at-large district. She ran on a platform of housing reform and education. As councilperson, she has worked to ensure that Philadelphia's communities have an equal voice to wealthy entities and lobbyists. She proposes a fair standard of living, especially for schoolchildren, and to combat hunger, lack of housing, and poverty.

Following the aftermath of the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, Gym posted on Twitter, "All around the country, we're fighting to remove the monuments to slavery & racism. Philly, we have work to do. Take the Rizzo statue down", referring to a statue of former Philadelphia mayor, Frank Rizzo. Her efforts to remove both the Frank Rizzo mural and Frank Rizzo statue began in 2016.

On November 29th, 2022, Gym resigned from Council in an anticipated run for the Democratic nomination in the 2023 Philadelphia mayoral election. She officially announced her candidacy the next day.

Personal life

In 1995, she married Bret Flaherty, a lawyer. They have three children.

Awards and honors

*Eddy Award, 2007
*White House's "César E. Chávez Champions of Change", 2014
*''The Philadelphia Inquirer's'' Citizen of the Year
*One of Philadelphia Magazine's 75 most influential people in the city
*Emily’s List’s 2017 Gabrielle Giffords Rising Star Award

See also

*List of members of Philadelphia City Council since 1952

References

External links

*
*TEDx talk
Why The Fight For Public Education Matters

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Gym, Helen
1960s births
21st-century American politicians
21st-century American women politicians
Asian-American city council members
Asian-American people in Pennsylvania politics
American community activists
American women journalists
American women of Korean descent in politics
Living people
Pennsylvania Democrats
Philadelphia City Council members
Politicians from Columbus, Ohio
Politicians from Seattle
University of Pennsylvania alumni
Women city councillors in Pennsylvania