Helen Gym

Helen Gym ( ; , born January 11, 1968) is an American politician. 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 Democratic primary of the 2023 Philadelphia mayoral election. Gym finished in third place behind Cherelle Parker, who won the nomination, and Rebecca Rhynhart.

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 including housing, education, youth issues, and worker’s rights. Gym attended the University of Pennsylvania and majored in history. In 1996, Gym completed her language acquisition master's degree at the University of Pennsylvania.

Early career and activism 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.

Gym has worked as a grassroots community organizer in Philadelphia and has been involved in education reform in the city since 2006. Around that time, she co-founded the Parents United for Public Education.

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 2013, Gym helped organized a protest at A.S. Jenks School, a Philadelphia public school that was implementing split grades - a system where two different grade levels are forced to share the same classroom and teacher.

Philadelphia City Council (2016–2022) In November 2015, Gym was elected to the Philadelphia City Council as an at-large member. Despite not being endorsed by the Philadelphia Democratic Party, she finished in 5th place out of 16 candidates. She proposed 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.

Gym authored Fair Workweek legislation which established regulations pertaining to scheduling of work for hourly workers. It passed the City Council in December 2018 by a 14–3 margin, with the three votes in opposition coming from the three Republican members of the City Council. It was signed into law by Mayor Jim Kenney on December 20, 2018.

Gym stood by fellow councilmember Bobby Henon, who was indicted for political corruption along with labor leader Johnny Dougherty in 2019. She supported Henon's candidacy for majority leader of the Philadelphia City Council. In 2015, Dougherty told Bobby Henon, who has since been convicted of multiple felonies, to invite Gym, among other members, to the Eagles game. Philadelphia Magazine speculated that Gym's decisions could have been influenced by the fact her husband Bret Flaherty, is an attorney for AmerisourceBergen, a pharmaceutical company.

Gym organized protests to oppose the closure of Hahnemann University Hospital in 2019. The Philadelphia Inquirer criticized her for grandstanding and not taking action to actually prevent the hospital's closure. In 2021, she voted against cutting the Philadelphia parking tax. She also opposed reducing the Business Income and Receipts tax. Gym said the tax money could have been used for the fight against violence. She opposed Mayor Jim Kenney's 2020 budget proposal that would increase police funding by $14 million. Gym supported the Driving Equality Bill in 2022, which prohibits police from pulling over cars for various traffic violations including broken taillights and outdated registrations.

In 2022, Gym authored legislation that was passed to address the matter of ensuring clean drinking water in Philadelphia schools.

2023 Philadelphia mayoral campaign On November 29, 2022, Gym resigned from Council in an anticipated run for the Democratic nomination in the 2023 Philadelphia mayoral election. Her candidacy has been endorsed by a number of teachers unions including the American Federation of Teachers and organizations including the Working Families Party and the University of Pennsylvania Young Democratic Socialists of America. Her candidacy was also endorsed by national politicians including Senator Bernie Sanders and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

She has proposed a number of progressive ideas including guaranteed jobs for those under the age of 30, city-funding for block parties and funerals and a city-wide therapist program. She has released a $10 billion plan for improvements to Philadelphia public schools. A week later, Gym was seen at the Union League for a cocktail party. For example, the editorial board expressed apprehension at Gym saying "I think there are significant dollars that are currently available, but we don’t have a commitment or a plan right now" when speaking on how she would fund her guaranteed jobs plan. Gym has called capitalism "an immoral system" and has said that it "runs counter to a human rights agenda and thus requires a countering force rooted in human rights and racial equity and justice."

In her 2019 City council reelection campaign, Gym gave her support to the Sunrise Movement's proposal for a "Philadelphia Green New Deal", which would be a municipal Green New Deal. Her mayoral campaign education plan includes a capital plan she has called a "Green New Deal for Schools".

Gym expressed support for the Minneapolis City Council's efforts to eliminate the Minneapolis Police Department saying cities "don’t have to keep the same systems over and over." Gym said on the looting following the murder of George Floyd: "If you want to denounce looting, let’s denounce LOOTING. Of our public schools, of Philly’s Black wealth through redlining and evictions and foreclosures, of the lives of essential workers for Amazon and Walmart getting minimum wage and no benefits while CEOs profit."

Gym was handcuffed and detained in 2021 at the Pennsylvania State Capitol while protesting alongside education advocates. 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