Sheila Kuehl

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So it wasn't until I went to [Harvard] law school in my thirties that I fell in love again with a woman after having dated lots of men in between, and I thought 'Oh, no, this is really who I am.' And by then in the mid-seventies, there was consciousness about being gay. My second partner was out…and I was still in the closet I thought, [but] I wasn't really in the closet at school. It's just sort of like you creep out a little at a time. But there was no movement, no organization, no club at Harvard, and so when we came back and lived together, it only lasted a couple of years and she left. I was so broken-hearted but I had no one to talk to. I hadn't told anyone I was even in a relationship. So I decided to come out to my sister and then my friends and very shortly thereafter my parents. And that was probably '79, so I was 38. So I knew I was gay when I fell in love with a woman for the second time. It wasn't an aberration for me…. [4]

After law school, Kuehl became an associate at Richards, Watson & Gershon in Los Angeles, where her practice focused on municipal law. She later became an associate at Bersch & Kaplowitz in Beverly Hills, practicing family, anti-discrimination, and civil rights law.

While working in private practice in Los Angeles Kuehl began fund-raising for the Sojourn Center for Battered Women (which she eventually served as chair). Staff from other shelters soon began asking Kuehl for legal advice and training in domestic-violence law. Kuehl later recalled this time saying "I had to learn what there was, which wasn't much." [15] She then joined a handful of other lawyers in trying to assist in crafting legislation on the issue which included a bill that required judges in custody cases to consider evidence of domestic violence. [15]

In the 1980s Kuehl became an adjunct law professor at the University of Southern California, and later an associate professor at Loyola Law School where she taught courses on family law, sex discrimination, and education. [3]

During her 1986 inauguration as president of the Women Lawyers' Association of Los Angeles, Kuehl introduced Torie Osborn as her partner in the same manner that previous presidents had introduced their husbands. The incident became the lead story of California's daily law journal. (The pair would later separate in 1991, but remained close friends). [15]

In 1989, along with Abby Leibman and Jenifer McKenna, Kuehl formed the California Women's Law Center to promote gender issues, including expanding the rights of divorced women and reforming hiring procedures in male-dominated professions, such as law enforcement. [7]

California State Assembly

Kuehl was elected to the California State Assembly in 1994, becoming the first openly gay person elected to the California legislature. While running for office, Kuehl found she was able to offset some negative stereotypes people had about lesbians thanks to their familiarity with her role as Zelda. She told an interviewer, "When people know gay people personally, they tend to feel differently about the whole community. And all of a sudden, here's a person that they knew very well that they found out was lesbian." [15]

In office, Kuehl became a founding member of the California Legislative LGBT Caucus. She recalled "My Democratic colleagues were enormously welcoming. I mean it was more than I could have expected. I walked into my first Democratic caucus and Antonio Villaraigosa, Kevin Murray, Barbara Friedman, John Burton, and probably three or four other folks came up to me and said, 'We don't want you to have to eat lunch by yourself, so we are the honorary Gay and Lesbian Caucus.' It was lovely." [4]

When Kuehl was elected as a Democrat to the California Assembly in 1994, a Republican majority was seated for the first time in 20 years. This was due largely as an out-flowing of the enthusiasm stoked up by Newt Gingrich's strategy supporting Republicans for congressional and senatorial seats. Kuehl recalled, "The Republican majority was quite a different kind of Republican, not a moderate, not a Rockefeller Republican. They were primarily Bible-thumpers and very right-wing. So, it was not the most welcoming Republican group, though they loved Zelda Gilroy, and it was very difficult for them because they already liked me so much…. And to their surprise, we all got along very well. ...The Republicans were pretty horrible about LGBT stuff. They all virtually said stuff like, 'Well, they're all spawn of the devil, oh, but not you, Sheila….'" [4]

One of the first acts Kuehl did while in the Assembly was to introduce a bill (The Dignity for All Students Act – AB 222) to protect public-school students from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. The bill was supported by most of her fellow Democrats whom Kuehl later recalled were brought "into a space where they were in a civil rights movement where they had never been at their age and they were feeling it and felt good about themselves when they would stand up and support me." [4] The debate was cited by the media, such as the LA Times, for its moving speeches, most notably Assemblyman Tom Torlakson's support of the bill which included a here-to unknown revelation that his brother had been bisexual and died of AIDS. [16] The bill failed to pass the Assembly by one vote (it was opposed by 37 lawmakers, including seven Democrats). Supporters of the bill blamed "a state-wide public relations campaign by anti-gay groups aimed at moderate Democrats" which "featured mailers, newspaper ads and protests largely targeted at Latino lawmakers." [16] Kuehl's opponents also held that the "proposal would open the door to a sweeping gay agenda in public schools." [16] Republican Assemblyman Bruce Thompson claimed the bill wasn't about "civil rights, but it's about special rights [for homosexuals]," and it's "the issue that will divide this state and country more than any other." [16]

While in the assembly, Kuehl served as speaker pro tempore during the 1997–98 legislative session, becoming the first woman in California history to hold the position. Kuehl served three full terms (six years) in the California Assembly, which was the maximum allowed under term limits that had been adopted in 1990.

California State Senate

After three terms in the Assembly, she was elected to the California State Senate in 2000, beating Assemblyman Wally Knox in the Democratic primary and becoming the first openly gay person elected to the Senate. [17] Re-elected in 2004 with 65.7% of the vote, she was repeatedly voted the "smartest" member of the California Legislature. [18]

In 2002 Kuehl co-authored the Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Protection Act that defined marriage as a civil contract between two persons. The bill went on to pass the state legislature – the first time a state legislative body in the USA voted to approve same-sex marriage rather than respond to a court order to do so. The bill was vetoed on September 7, 2005, by Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. who held that the matter should be decided by the courts or by popular referendum. [19] [20]

In 2004, Gavin Newsom, the mayor of San Francisco, held that denying homosexuals the right to marry was a violation of the due process clause in the California Constitution and allowed them to go forward (until a later Court order was made). After the mayor's announcement Kuehl presided over a number of same-sex marriages on the steps of San Francisco's City Hall rotunda. Among those whose wedding she officiated was Assemblymember Jackie Goldberg (who authored AB 205, a sweeping domestic partner benefits law) and her partner for twenty-eight years Sharon Stricker (a poet and activist). The couple's newly married son and daughter-in-law were in attendance. Kuehl also officiated over the weddings of Torie Osborn and her partner, Lydia Vaias; Jehan Agrama and Dwora Fried; Patti Giggans and Ellen Ledley; Barrie Levy and Linda Garnets; and Avi Rose and Ron Strochlic. Assemblymember Mark Leno (who had recently introduced a bill to change the family code to allow marriage equality) also attended the ceremonies giving a blessing in English and Hebrew to the couples. [21]

Also in 2004, Kuehl authored Senate Bill 1234, an omnibus act intended to protect Californians from hate crimes, which the bill defined as criminal acts committed in whole or in part because of the victims' actual or perceived disability, gender, nationality, race or ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation or association with persons with any of those characteristics. The bill targeted crimes, not First Amendment-protected speech. It also protected undocumented immigrants from deportation due to reporting hate crimes, increased civil protections from discrimination, and provided for law enforcement training concerning crimes against homeless persons and law enforcement response to homelessness; the bill was later enacted into law.

In 2006, Kuehl sponsored a bill to prohibit the adoption by any school district in California of any instructional material that discriminates against persons based on their gender or sexual orientation. [22]

Throughout her career as a legislator, Kuehl took a leadership role on health care policy. Her foremost objective was securing passage of legislation to establish a single-payer health care system in California. [23] SB 840 passed both houses of the legislature in 2006, but was vetoed by Schwarzenegger; it was reintroduced in 2007. [24] SB 840 passed both houses of the California legislature in August 2008 and was, again, vetoed by Schwarzenegger.

On January 28, 2008, The New York Times reported that Kuehl planned to vote against a health care plan sponsored by Governor Schwarzenegger and supported by a majority of Democrats in the Assembly, while opposed by a majority of Republicans. Her opposition along with the opposition of Senator Leland Yee led the Times to predict that California's widely touted healthcare bill – widely but inaccurately called "universal" coverage – would be effectively killed. [25] However, by the time the bill came to the Senate Health Committee, chaired by Kuehl, all but one of the Democratic Senators on the committee had grave doubts about the bill and, after an eleven-hour hearing on the bill and an intervening week to caucus, on January 28, 2008, one Democrat voted yes, three abstained and three (including Kuehl), along with all Republicans, voted in opposition.

During her time in the state Legislature Kuehl authored bills pertaining to domestic violence, child support services, family leave, and discrimination based on gender, disability and sexual orientation. Later when speaking to an interviewer she reflected "I was a women's rights attorney and a law professor. My interest was primarily issues of equality on the basis of gender, whether it was workplace discrimination, protection from domestic violence and sexual assault, child care, custody issues for married women. That was my area of expertise, so we started with that. I had participated in writing virtually all of the domestic violence laws, and then brought bills to expand them once I was [in Sacramento]. I knew, that as the only gay person, it would fall to me to bring protective bills. And I chose the most difficult one first, because anything having to do with children is a flashpoint for the opposition. And so it was very difficult." [4]

Kuehl served in the California Senate for two terms (eight years) the maximum allowed under term limits adopted in 1990.

Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors

On November 4, 2014, Supervisor Kuehl was elected to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. She assumed office on December 1, 2014, thus becoming the first openly LGBTQ person to ever serve on the Board. As the representative of Los Angeles County's 3rd Supervisorial District, she serves nearly two million residents, and is responsible for managing 431 square miles of land stretching from the Pacific ocean to Los Feliz, and from Venice up to San Fernando. In 2018, she served as chair of the Board of Supervisors.

In her capacity as Supervisor, she served as chair of the Board of Commissioners of First 5 LA, First Vice Chair of the board of directors of LA Metro, and sat on the Board of the new Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) known as the Clean Power Alliance.

In her first three years on the Board, she undertook or collaborated in a number of initiatives and motions. A partial list of her work includes raising the minimum wage, creating a Citizens' Oversight Commission for the Sheriff's Department, providing funding and services for LA County's homeless population and those trying to find and keep affordable housing.

Kuehl previously had a ten-year romantic relationship with Torie Osborn, who served as a deputy mayor in L.A. [4] Osborn went on to support Kuehl's run for Supervisor and joined her staff as principal deputy for strategy and policy. [26]

Los Angeles County limits its Supervisors to three consecutive four-year terms in accord with a 2002 measure. When running for the office she was asked if she missed acting and responded that the camaraderie in public service mirrored her favorite aspect of acting, and then stated "I suppose if I get to be a supervisor and then I'm termed out, I'll be, you know, fairly elderly but still able to do things, and then I guess my ambition would be to be Betty White for a couple of years." [4]

Reflecting on her political career Kuehl told an interviewer, "I was very proud of the fact that I wasn't too frightened to run for office as a gay person. [You imagine] people making anonymous phone calls in the middle of the night to tell you you're a horrible person only in worse language than that, or imagine getting spat at. It's the same thing people go through about coming out. But it turns out to be much better than you expect." [4]

On November 24, 2020, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted to uphold the county ban on outdoor dining, [27] with Kuehl voting in favor of the ban and referring to the ongoing situation as a "serious health emergency". [28]

In 2022, UCLA named her the Edward A. Dickson Alum of the Year. [29]

On September 14, 2022, deputies from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department served Kuehl with a search warrant. [30] The warrant is related to an investigation into Kuehl's involvement with an alleged "pay to play" scheme; a former County official claimed that Kuehl and others improperly awarded a series of contracts for sexual harassment training programs. [31] A few days after the raids, the California Department of Justice took over the investigation. In an August 2024 court approved agreement ending the investigation, they stated there was "insufficient evidence to support the filing of any criminal charges". [32]

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Sheila Kuehl
Sheila Kuehl - LA Board of Supervisors.jpg
Chair of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors
In office
December 5, 2017 December 4, 2018
Political offices
Preceded by California State Assemblymember,
41st District

1994–2000
Succeeded by
Preceded by California State Senator,
23rd District

2000–2008
Succeeded by
Preceded by Chair of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors
2017–2018
Succeeded by
Preceded by Chair Pro Tem of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors
2016-2017
2021–2022
Succeeded by
Preceded bySucceeded by
Preceded by Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors
District 3

2014–2022
Succeeded by