When San Francisco’s elected and re-elected officials take their oaths of office in January of 2015, we’ll be represented by fewer openly-LGBT officials than we have in years.
Supervisor Scott Wiener, who is openly gay, was re-elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, continuing a legacy dating back to Harvey Milk. There has been an openly lesbian or gay member of the Board since Milk was inaugurated in January of 1978, as we pointed out in our article, “Harvey’s legacy on the BOS.” By the time Supervisor Wiener’s term is up in January of 2019, we will have had 40 years of LGBT representation on the Board.
But with Supervisor David Campos being termed out of office, Wiener will be the Board’s only gay member – the first time in 24 years that there will be only one LGBT member.
California’s eastern state Assembly District is currently held by Tom Ammiano, who is openly gay. It’s been held by an openly gay or lesbian member for 18 years since Carole Migden was elected in 1996 and then succeeded by Mark Leno in 2002. Campos sought to replace Ammiano, who is termed out of office, but was defeated in the general election by David Chiu, a straight Democrat.
Migden was elected to the State Senate in 2002 and was replaced by Leno in 2006. Since 2002, San Francisco has had two LGBT representatives in the Legislature. But with Campos’ loss, that leaves Leno, as San Francisco’s sole LGBT representative in the State Legislature. Leno will be termed out of office in 2016, and it’s unclear who will seek to replace him.
Although it’s been widely rumored that Leno hopes to replace Nancy Pelosi in Congress should she choose to retire, Pelosi has hinted that she plans to stay in office longer in hopes of regaining the Speakership. Efforts are currently underway to persuade Leno to run for Mayor of San Francisco in November of 2015.
But for now, San Francisco will have only one LGBT representative in the Legislature for the first time in a dozen years, and only one LGBT member of the Board of Supervisors for the first time in two dozen years.
