The California LGBT Legislative Caucus in a Year of Enormous Change

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

Left to Right: Senator Christine Kehoe, Senator Carole Migden, Assemblymember John Laird (Chair), Senator Sheila Kuehl, Assemblymember Mark Leno, and Assemblymember-Emeritus Jackie Goldberg

By Kyle Samia
Reporter
California Progress Report

Proposition 8, the ballot initiative seeking to amend the state constitution to exclude gay and lesbian couples from the definition of marriage, will push Californians to either make a great leap in civil rights, or take a major step backwards. Aside from the growing campaigns to defeat the initiative, and aside from the traditional, liberal spirit of California, in office are five, out LGBT leaders who have been keeping the community’s issues represented and at the table of legislative politics.

If you had been to the Capitol in June, recognized as Pride Month for the LGBT community, you would have seen a display of five legislators. On the second floor of the rotunda, all around where short biographies and legislative histories behind glass encasement with accompanying pictures. And on a humble sign, propped up for your information, is a rainbow with the following names beneath: Senators Carole Migden (D-San Francisco), Christine Kehoe (D-San Diego), Sheila Kuehl (D-Los Angeles), and Assemblymen Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) and John Laird (D-Santa Cruz). These Senators and Assemblymen are the five, proudly out LGBT members of the legislature who form the LGBT Legislative Caucus.

The first openly gay member to the legislature was Kuehl, elected into office in 1994. Following Kuehl two years later was Migden, and in 2002 Kehoe and Jackie Goldberg (D-Los Angeles) were elected to the Senate and Assembly, respectively. “We really didn’t think about forming a caucus necessarily because we were already so close,” said Kuehl. “But when Laird and Leno came in, we looked around and noticed there were other community caucuses. We thought there ought to be an official caucus in the legislature.” When Laird and Leno joined the Assembly in 2003, talk of formal LGBT Caucus began. “We thought that this was the right time with six members to begin to embark on a new caucus,” said Kehoe.

Prior to the formation of the LGBT Legislative Caucus there had only been a handful out staffers in the legislature, according to Laird. “We were depending on the kindness of strangers for LGBT issues,” he commented.