A group of high-profile lesbians on Wednesday launched a political action committee dedicated to raising cash and campaigning on gay and women's rights issues in America.

The organisation, called LPAC, is backed by famous gay women such as tennis legend Billie Jean King and Glee's Jane Lynch, and will have the power under new campaign finance laws in the US to generate and spend unlimited funds.

The organisation is aiming to raise at least a million dollars for the 2012 election cycle, which it wants to use to back candidates who share its equality mission or campaign against measures aimed at suppressing gay rights, such as moves to ban same-sex marriage.

LPAC's organisers said gay rights and women's health issues were a key priority in American politics, especially in the face of Republican efforts to campaign against equal marriage and pass laws that restrict or hamper access to abortion clinics.

"The Republican party is continuing to attack lesbian's rights and women's rights. I want to wake up the day after the election and know that I did everything I could to defeat that," said Sarah Schmidt, LPAC's chair and a Chicago businesswoman.

Schmidt said that the idea for forming LPAC had been first floated last autumn and that by early this year its backers had established that they could easily raise the cash to form the committee and had attracted a list of willing donors to its cause. "It really gained steam as we talked about it. We saw that this was viable," Schmidt said.

LPAC is now expected to focus its attention on the race between President Obama and Republican Mitt Romney. Obama has recently won widespread acclaim from gay rights groups for coming out in support of gay marriage and also for allowing gay personnel to serve openly in the US military.

By contrast, Romney has gone on record saying he does not support gay marriage, earning the ire of many gay Americans who say he is discriminating against the civil rights of fellow citizens.

"This year we have seen politicians repeatedly support policies that harm women. It is important to me to elect leaders who care about issues that impact women and their families. That's why I support LPAC," said Lynch, who plays Sue Sylvester in Glee.

However, LPAC will also likely seek to support candidates in other 2012 political races, such as congresswoman Tammy Baldwin, who is running for the Senate in Wisconsin and who will become the first openly gay woman senator if she wins.

King said that forming LPAC would give lesbians a powerful and highly visible political voice to be reckoned with. "The formation of LPAC provides lesbians and the entire LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) community a new, stronger voice and a real and respected seat at the table when politicians make policy that impacts our lives," said the tennis star.

Other powerful supporters of the project include long-time gay rights activist Urvashi Vaid, part-owner of the Chicago Cubs baseball team Laura Ricketts and New York-based public relations guru Valerie Berlin.

LPAC will have little trouble finding candidates and causes to support or oppose, as gay rights and issues like abortion are rarely far from the surface in American politics. Mississippi is currently roiled by a political fight over a planned anti-abortion law that could close the state's only abortion clinic. The issue has mobilised both pro and anti-abortion forces in America and created headline across the country.

On Tuesday, the Episcopal church in America approved a ceremony to bless same-sex couples in the latest step toward accepting homosexuality by a denomination that nine years ago elected its first openly gay bishop.

However, gay marriage still divides Americans. While six states and the District of Columbia have legalized gay marriage, and three more states could do so this year, 30 other US states have passed constitutional amendments limiting marriage to unions between a man and a woman. But many experts believe Americans are becoming increasingly accepting of the issue, especially among younger people. A recent opinion poll by ABC News showed that 53% of Americans now believe gay marriage should be legal, up from 36% in 2006.

Schmidt said that LPAC had a long-term goal to become an activist force in politics far beyond the 2012 election, continuing a fight for gay and women's equality past the current election cycle.

"Our goal is to build a network that stays engaged past 2012," she said.

That network could easily become powerful. A recent Washington Post story revealed that one in six of Obama's top fundraising "bundlers" - those supporters who help raise more than $500,000 – are openly gay, thus giving them and their causes political clout.