Larry Bush, a gay man who was a government watchdog and once served as a San Francisco mayoral aide, died July 26 at an assisted care facility in Daly City. He was 78.
A cause of death was not provided by Mr. Bush's family, though he was about to enter hospice when he passed away, friends said. A resident of the city's LGBTQ Castro district, Mr. Bush was known for the holiday decorations adorning his house throughout the year.
Mr. Bush had served on the San Francisco Civil Grand Jury and was "an ethics warrior," in the words of Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin, who adjourned the board's July 30 meeting in Mr. Bush's memory.
"He shaped our modern ethics commission," Peskin said during his remarks. "Larry Bush understood government, understood how it could work for the citizens, and what was necessary to bring improved services to the citizens of the city."
Peskin recounted that Mr. Bush served as an aide to former mayor Art Agnos, creating the mayor's task force on the HIV epidemic and setting up a coordinated response with the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"His extensive contacts in Washington led to the acceptance by surgeon general C. Everett Koop to speak on AIDS to a joint session of the California Legislature for the first time anywhere in the country," Peskin said.
Mr. Bush also coordinated efforts to create the state's first domestic partner law, Peskin added.
Agnos did not return a message seeking comment.
Focus on ethics
Peskin said that while Mr. Bush served on the civil grand jury in the 1990s, the panel's recommendations became "the starting point for a major reboot in the ethics commission, including areas of disclosure, transparency, citizen involvement, and accountability."
Mr. Bush served on the ethics commission from 2020 to early 2023, after he was appointed by the Board of Supervisors. In May 2023, he applied for reappointment and told the supervisors' rules committee that he had been on the panel for the last two years in an interim capacity. He was the only applicant to apply in 2020, as the Bay Area Reporter previously reported.
(The supervisors ultimately decided to appoint attorney Yaman Salahi to the seat last year; he is the first Arab American on the commission.)
In an email to the B.A.R. after that May 2023 meeting, Bush stated, "I wanted greater and broader public involvement, which is why I was involved in new definitions of family that included families like ours, for a full time commission secretary, and better minutes and an advisory panels that make use of former commissioners and staff, and other resources."
He helped write the charter amendment for the ethics commission in 1994.
Previously, Mr. Bush served on the Friends of Ethics citizens group before resigning in 2018. According to a San Francisco Examiner article at the time, Mr. Bush was angry that the commission and Board of Supervisors could not agree on a series of reforms to speed up revelations of big money backers funding super PACS and other items.
Peskin pointed out that Mr. Bush made several contributions to the city.
"He influenced the creation of spending limits for San Francisco candidates, electronic filing of campaign reports, and expanded conflict of interest reporting," Peskin said.
Early life
Mr. Bush was born July 31, 1945. Peskin noted in his remarks, which were compiled from Mr. Bush's resume he submitted with his ethics commission application, that he came from a distinguished family with a history in federal government service. Mr. Bush attended Brigham Young University in Utah but did not finish because he was dismissed for being gay. He later attended the University of Salzburg in Austria. As a young man, Mr. Bush traveled to Europe on his mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Finland.
Mr. Bush was a gay political pioneer in Washington, Peskin said. He worked as a speechwriter for the agriculture secretary under then-President Gerald Ford, where he was also outed and fired for being gay.
He then served as the Washington, D.C. correspondent for the Advocate LGBTQ publication, and was the first openly gay reporter accredited by the White House, according to his resume. Mr. Bush also wrote for straight publications such as the New York Times, Washington Post, the Village Voice, and Playboy.
For a time, he published the Bush Report, which was concerned with gay political and cultural issues.
Mr. Bush served as a liaison for the National Gay Task Force (now the National LGBTQ Task Force) and later worked for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
His nephew, Joel Bush, stated in an email that Mr. Bush was his dad's brother.
"I loved him dearly," Joel Bush, an ally, wrote. "He and I became close as I traveled to San Francisco often and briefly lived in Sacramento during a few short years when I was involved in California politics in the 2000s. During that time I learned a lot more about him and the things that really stood out to me (and clearly to others that have known him) are his incredible and razor sharp intellect, his humor, his focus and commitment to taking on injustices, and his huge heart."
Joel Bush eventually became Mr. Bush's power of attorney.
"In the process of taking over the day-to-day affairs on his behalf, I've found it amazing just how many lives he's touched — and not just his close friends and colleagues. It's the gardeners (his house was amazingly decorated for all major holidays, by the way) or even the people who run a long term storage facility on Treasure Island. Those who knew him truly appreciated him and the kindness in how he treated those around him. He loved unconditionally and could always be counted on for a detailed and in depth conversation on just about anything ... but he definitely preferred politics!"
In fact, Mr. Bush's Christmas decorations were featured in the B.A.R. in 2018. He lived at 245 Diamond Street at 19th Street just up the block from the Eureka Valley Recreation Center and around the corner from the Harvey Milk Civil Rights Academy public school in the heart of the Castro.
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