Starting next month, city councils around the Bay Area will begin welcoming back LGBTQ incumbents and newly elected members following the results of their races in the November 5 election. And in Contra Costa County, several city councils will mark pink political milestones in December.
Concord will witness the seating of its first out council person due to the election of Pablo Benavente, while El Cerrito will have the first council with a queer majority in the Bay Area. The El Cerrito City Council is not only set to have a four-person LGBTQ bloc on its five-member governing body but also California's first known Black lesbian mayor.
Currently mayor pro tem, City Councilmember Carolyn Wysinger is set to take over the mayor's gavel at the council's December 17 meeting. The ceremonial mayoral position rotates among the council members each December.
"It is a shock to a lot of us," said Wysinger, a former president of San Francisco Pride who this year is cycling off the committee that oversees the LGBTQ event, of seeing her small, suburban city make LGBTQ political history.
That Tuesday night is also when Councilmembers-elect Rebecca Saltzman and William Ktsanes, who both happen to be out parents, will take their oaths of office to join the council.
Saltzman told the Bay Area Reporter she is planning to have a prominent LGBTQ leader officiate her oath of office and for Ktsanes as well if he wants to coordinate with her on whom to ask. While she had told the B.A.R. when she entered the council race about the possibility of seeing her city mark a queer political milestone, now that it will be a reality, she said it is only beginning to sink in with other people.
"They are surprised," said Saltzman, a lesbian who is stepping down from her elected seat on the board that oversees the BART regional transit agency.
After the B.A.R. had reported online November 6 about El Cerrito being on the cusp of having a historic number of out councilmembers, numerous people forwarded the story to Saltzman to express their amazement at the achievement. Both Palm Springs and West Hollywood have had queer council majorities, but until now, no city in Northern California has had one.
"People are very excited," said Saltzman, who placed second in her race for three council seats with nearly 28% of the citywide vote based on the unofficial returns.
Ktsanes, a gay dad who is a University of San Francisco adjunct professor in the School of Management's Master of Science in Financial Analysis program, took third place with 22.32% of the vote. He did not respond to a request for comment by the B.A.R.'s press deadline this week.
They will serve alongside Wysinger and gay City Councilmember Gabe Quinto, whose win in 2014 marked the first time someone known to be living with HIV was elected to public office in the Bay Area. The fifth councilmember will be Lisa Motoyama, a straight ally who won reelection this month and came in first place with close to 30%.
"It is appropriate that it is happening here in El Cerrito and is the first in Northern California," said Quinto of his council having a queer majority. "I know West Hollywood and Palm Springs have done this time and time again, but it is exciting to see it happening here in the Bay Area."
Wysinger told the B.A.R. that she is unaware of another Black lesbian serving as mayor of a city in the Golden State. She joked she has had "all my Black lesbians" looking to find out if one had served in the role.
"None of us have dug up one yet," quipped Wysinger, who has asked her boss, California Controller Malia Cohen, to administer her mayoral oath of office.
Cohen, whom Wysinger serves as her political director and communications director, had sworn in gay Pinole City Councilmember Devin Murphy as his city's ceremonial mayor in 2022. He became the first known out Black mayor in the Bay Area, while that November saw Tyller Williamson become the first gay Black elected mayor of Monterey, California.
Murphy and Williamson both won their reelection bids this month. In Murphy's race for two council seats up for grabs, he took first place with 39% of the citywide vote.
"The math is mathing," said Murphy, who had told the B.A.R. last week he would wait for the vote to be certified to declare victory but, with all ballots counted, did so in a post on X Monday. "But again, it is really exciting. I love Pinole so much."
He will be sworn into a second term that same Tuesday night as his council counterparts are in El Cerrito. Next year in December, Murphy is poised to again serve as his city's mayor pro tem, setting him up to return as mayor in late 2026.
"I am very much looking forward to serving a second term. I also want to thank the voters for their incredible support of me being number one again," Murphy said of this year's election outcome. "It inspires me. ... My focus is on ensuring every Pinole resident feels safe, heard and supported. I will do that for the next four years."
Taking his oath of office December 10 will be Benavente, 33, who is not only the first LGBTQ person elected to the Concord City Council but only the second person of color. He is a gay Latino.
Benavente and his husband, Simon Woods, have a nearly 2-year-old daughter and a pup named Melvin, who is a rat terrier and fox terrier mix. While he had hoped Wood would be able to swear him in, Benavente was told his city clerk will be officiating his oath of office.
He will be one of the youngest gay fathers in elected office in the Bay Area, something he hadn't registered until asked about bringing the perspective of a youthful out parent to the council by the B.A.R. While proud of the representation he will bring as a councilmember, it wasn't central to his campaign, he noted.
"I didn't run on being gay. I didn't run on being Latino or identity politics. I ran on the issues," said Benavente, who didn't hide his family from voters, having prominently featured them on his campaign website. (The fathers agreed, however, to maintain some privacy with their daughter, never clearly showing her face in photos and asking the B.A.R. not to publish her name.)
Benavente had lost his first council bid in 2016 when the seats were still decided citywide and opted not to run four years later. This year, sensing voters were ready for new leadership of the council district, he entered the race against incumbent District 4 City Councilmember Edi Birsan.
He defeated Birsan, who happened to be Concord's ceremonial mayor this year, by 75 votes, as of the latest vote count.
"People wanted change and they got the change they wanted," said Benavente, who was boosted by his serving as chair of a successful $30 million tax measure for road repairs Concord voters approved in 2020.
As for how long El Cerrito will maintain its queer council majority, it will be determined by what Wysinger and Quinto decide to do when they are up for reelection in 2026. Quinto told the B.A.R. he still needs to discuss his plans with his partner but is looking at running for a fourth term.
"We shall see. I am not ready to go yet," said Quinto, elected in October as first vice president of the League of California Cities Board of Directors.
Asked if she had decided on seeking a second term or perhaps run for a higher office that may open up in two years, Wysinger demurred and would only say, "No comment." She allowed that she is still processing the results of this year's election and is glad to see that Benavente was able to expand the ranks of LGBTQ electeds in the eastern section of their county.
"We really do need that representation over there. The farther you go from west county across the central county into east county, it is a whole lot more difficult to elect diverse people out there," noted Wysinger.
Web Extra: For more queer political news, be sure to check http://www.ebar.com Monday mornings for Political Notes, the notebook's online companion. This week's column reported on the red wall a number of LGBTQ candidates hit in Riverside County.
Keep abreast of the latest LGBTQ political news by following the Political Notebook on Threads @ https://www.threads.net/@matthewbajko.
Got a tip on LGBTQ politics? Call Matthew S. Bajko at (415) 829-8836 or email [email protected]
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