Twenty-five years ago when BAYMEC, the South Bay's LGBT political group, held its first dinner, it consisted of about 20 people gathering for a spaghetti feed at a local high school cafeteria. Only two elected officials were in attendance.

At its silver jubilee this past Saturday, September 26, nearly 600 people gathered for a salmon and prawn dinner at the Fairmont Hotel in downtown San Jose. More than 50 elected leaders – from Congress and the state Legislature to school boards and city councils – strutted across the stage as they "tooted their own horns," i.e. blew into paper noisemakers as they were introduced.

Among the crowd was Congressman Mike Honda (D-San Jose), who received BAYMEC's Legislator of the Year Award, and former Santa Clara County Counsel Ann Ravel, selected by President Barack Obama to head the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Division Torts Branch and Office of Consumer Litigation in Washington, D.C.

Notably absent among the politicians was San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed. The conservative politician – the only big city mayor in the Bay Area not to oppose Proposition 8, the ban against same-sex marriage voters passed last November – not only was a no show at the event but also had no representative there in his place.

Asked about her boss' absence by the Bay Area Reporter this week, the mayor's spokeswoman Michelle McGurk said Reed was in Washington, D.C. on city business through Saturday and was unable to attend the dinner. McGurk added that a family conflict unexpectedly prevented her from going in his place.

"Mayor Reed is supportive of the LGBT community, and we will be delivering a commendation from him to Leslie Bulbuk, commending her for her work with BAYMEC," wrote McGurk.

Bulbuk is the current president of BAYMEC, which stands for the Bay Area Municipal Elections Committee. It bills itself as the "LGBT political voice" in San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, and Monterrey counties. This Saturday, October 3, the Santa Clara Valley ACLU chapter will honor Bulbuk with its Don Edwards Civil Liberties Award and has asked Honda to present her with the prestigious recognition for her "outspoken and effective" advocacy for the South Bay LGBT community.

Asked at the event about Reed's absence, Bulbuk said she preferred not to focus on one person and rather "look at the overwhelming support in this room. It is astounding."

But during his remarks at the dinner, out Campbell City Councilman Evan Low, who noted he is only a year older than BAYMEC, told the crowd to "remember the politicians you didn't see up here. We have much more to fight for."

Openly gay former state Assemblyman John Laird, who at the time of the first BAYMEC dinner was mayor of Santa Cruz, said Reed's not having a presence at the event was a mistake.

"It's too bad. He is on the wrong side of history when he does that," said Laird, who joked he is a "recovering legislator" and will teach a course on environmental policy at the University of California, Santa Cruz come January.

Openly gay Santa Clara County Supervisor Ken Yeager, formerly a San Jose Councilman, said he hadn't noticed Reed's absence when asked about it. Yeager and out lesbian Wiggsy Siversten helped found BAYMEC and led the group through its earliest years. Another early leader of the group, Rich Gordon, is now a San Mateo County supervisor and running for state Assembly in the 21st Assembly District.

Discussing BAYMEC's history, Yeager recalled, "We couldn't use the words gay and lesbian in the name of the organization because God forbid your neighbors or your postman knew you were gay. During our first endorsement process we only received a couple of our questionnaires back. Few politicians wanted our endorsement. In 1984 I could never have imagined BAYMEC would stay relevant 25 years later."

Siversten, a longtime employee at San Jose State University, said BAYMEC's first leaders knew in order for the group to be effective it needed to include more than just gay men as members.

"We had to include lesbians. In our community we had to have women as part of our organization," she said. "We also knew we needed to have straights; we needed allies."

During his acceptance speech Honda said, "BAYMEC made LGBT a household word" in the South Bay. He also predicted that the Matthew Shepard Act, which would ensure sexual orientation and gender identity are covered by federal hate crimes laws, "will go to the president's desk and be signed soon."

Former lesbian lawmaker slams anti-gay judge confirmation

In an essay she e-mailed out and posted online last Friday, September 25, former lesbian state Senator Sheila Kuehl slammed the confirmation of an anti-gay Senate colleague to an appellate court seat.

As the B.A.R. reported online last week, the state's three-person Commission on Judicial Appointments confirmed former Republican state Senator Charles "Chuck " Poochigian, blasted by LGBT groups for his dismal voting record on pro-gay legislation, to a vacant seat on the state's 5th District Court of Appeal in Fresno.

While Attorney General Jerry Brown pressed Poochigian about his views on LGBT rights, the panels other two members – California's chief justice, Ronald George, and Fifth Appellate District Presiding Justice James A. Ardaiz – questioned the veracity of the anti-gay claims against the nominee. Ardaiz went so far as to say that since Poochigian's family is Armenian and suffered during the Turkish imposed genocide in 1915 through 1917, he understands the type of discrimination LGBT people face.

"I have known this man for 40 years ... In all that time I have never heard him say anything or infer anything to demonstrate bias toward anyone," said Ardaiz. "He comes from a background of discrimination. I have never seen it."

The chair of the Commission on Judicial Nominees Evaluation, which gave Poochigian an unqualified rating for the judgeship, told the panel its process found no anti-gay bias on the part of Poochigian. But Kuehl told the B.A.R. in an e-mail following the vote September 24 that she, too, had given her former colleague a "not qualified" ranking on the form she sent to what is known as the JNE commission "precisely because of his exhibition of bias against LGBT folks throughout the time I served with him in the Legislature."

"Although I always found him an amiable person, his voting record was virtually uniform in rejecting civil rights laws, and not only for the LGBT community," she added.

In her essay Kuehl wrote, "I knew from experience that Sen. Poochigian's votes had consistently indicated animosity to civil rights statutes regarding gender, disability, and sexual orientation."

She wrote that when a person on the evaluating committee called her to discuss her rating and verify she had meant to disqualify Poochigian on the basis of bias, "I indicated I did mean it, not out of any animosity to Chuck, but simply as a matter of fact."

Kuehl wrote that she found the confirmation process riddled with "failures" and believes "the resolve of the court to explore potential biases of judicial candidates has been weakened."

Kuehl was not alone in her criticism of the panel's decision to confirm Poochigian, who vehemently refuted accusations he harbors antigay animus and pledged to uphold all the state's laws, even if he voted against them while a lawmaker.

 Equality California, the statewide LGBT lobbying group whose executive director, Geoff Kors, was the sole person to testify against the nominee, said it found the outcome of the hearing "appalling" and pledged to double its efforts to see that a governor responsive to the LGBT community's concerns be elected next year. GOP Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger chose Poochigian for the appellate court seat.

"Poochigian's appointment is an example of why we need to elect a governor in 2010 who will select candidates who support our equality. I wonder if the result would have been the same if the nominee had opposed laws to ban employment discrimination against another minority group," stated Kors in an e-mail sent to EQCA supporters.

And Kors put Poochigian on notice that his behavior as a judge will be closely monitored.

"Going forward I hope you will share with me any instances of legal proceedings where Chuck Poochigian's lack of support for equal rights under the law – or that of any judge – is demonstrated. We will collect and pass your complaints to the State Bar," wrote Kors.

Spanjian holds community kickoff in D8 supe race

Laura Spanjian is taking her bid for a seat on the Board of Supervisors to the dogs this weekend. She is hosting a community kickoff event in Noe Valley at a neighborhood park and is inviting supporters to bring their kids and their pets.

The out lesbian is running to replace Supervisor Bevan Dufty, who is termed out of his District 8 seat next year and is running for mayor in 2011. Spanjian, an assistant general manager with the city's Public Utilities Commission, is running against deputy City Attorney Scott Wiener and lawyer Rafael Mandelman. Assistant District Attorney Rebecca Prozan is expected to enter the race later this month.

The candidates, all of whom are gay or lesbian, are already battling for financial support and high profile endorsements. Wiener, who lined up backing from Mayor Gavin Newsom last fall, announced in early September endorsements from Supervisor Sean Elsbernd, openly gay former Ambassador James C. Hormel, and the Reverend Cecil Williams and his wife, Janice Mirikitani, of Glide Memorial Church.

Spanjian recently announced that longtime San Francisco Sheriff Mike Hennessy and lesbian icon Phyllis Lyon are backing her candidacy. Her event Saturday, October 3 takes place from 10:30 a.m. to noon at the Noe Courts on 24th and Douglass streets.

Web Extra: For more queer political news, be sure to check http://www.ebar.com Monday mornings around 10 a.m. for Political Notes, the notebook's online companion. This week's column reports on out SF supervisor Bevan Dufty's pulling papers to run for mayor.

Keep abreast of the latest LGBT political news by following the Political Notebook on Twitter @ http://twitter.com/politicalnotes.

Got a tip on LGBT politics? Call Matthew S. Bajko at (415) 861-5019 or e-mail m.bajko@ebar.com.