Caesar Valentine sent an email to the members of the South Carolina Democratic LGBTQ caucus just before 2 p.m. on the first Saturday in August. There would be a Zoom meeting on Monday. Members would have to RSVP to join, wrote Valentine, the black 31-year-old caucus chairman.

They would be voting on the caucus bylaws. There would be a special guest, a congressional candidate. And they would be voting on a caucus secretary, treasurer, and four vice chairs.

But not just anyone could fill the vice-chair positions, Valentine wrote.

“1st– has to be trans or non-binary, 2nd– opposing race to chair, 3rd– opposing gender to chair, 4th– younger than 35,” Valentine wrote. The nominations for the positions were closed.

The identity and trait-based restrictions don’t seem to have raised many concerns — the votes were held and the positions were filled, Valentine said.

But at least one South Carolina Democrat says the restrictions stink; they have “nothing to do with merit,” they limit opportunities, and they take the party’s obsession with identity politics to a “whole new level.”