Voters in portions of San Francisco and San Mateo counties head to the polls Tuesday, April 8 for a special election to fill the term of the late Congressman Tom Lantos, who died earlier this year. The longtime Democratic lawmaker was a champion of human rights, and leaves some big shoes to fill. But there is a candidate who stands above the rest – former state Senator Jackie Speier.
Speier, who had planned to run for Lantos's seat after he announced his retirement, will face several lesser-known opponents Tuesday. Should she receive a majority of votes, she would be sworn in immediately and finish the term. She would also be on the ballot in the June 3 primary in the race for a full two-year term, with that contest ultimately being decided in November. The district is nearly 60 percent Democratic.
We met with Speier last week; she is an experienced legislator who effectively served for many years in Sacramento. Her legislative accomplishments include a landmark privacy rights law, prescription discounts for seniors, and clinical trial access for cancer patients.
In terms of support for the LGBT community, Speier is a staunch ally. She supports marriage equality, and in fact told us that she married nearly 20 same-sex couples during San Francisco's "Winter of Love" in 2004. She opposes the federal Defense of Marriage Act and during the same-sex marriage debate in Sacramento a few years ago, told her colleagues that marriage equality "is the civil rights issue of our lifetime."
Speier said that she is supportive of a transgender-inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act, though she noted that she would vote for a version of the bill if it only included gays and lesbians, in an effort to provide some protections for the community. If that were the case, she would then push for a bill that included gender identity, she said.
On other issues of concern to the community, Speier is on board with fighting for increased HIV/AIDS funding and advocating for human rights around the world. She has been endorsed by both the Harvey Milk and Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic clubs.
Many readers are familiar with Speier's own life-threatening experience in 1978, after her boss, Congressman Leo Ryan, was assassinated in Jonestown, Guyana. Speier, who had accompanied him, was shot five times and left for dead on the tarmac. Help arrived some 22 hours later. And it was while she was being treated back in the United States just days later that she learned that San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk were gunned down in their City Hall offices.
While the passing of Lantos has left a void in Congress, voters in the 12th District have an opportunity to send another trailblazer to Washington, D.C. We urge them to cast their ballots for Jackie Speier on Tuesday.
Step up to fight initiative
With only a few weeks left until the April 21 deadline, we received word this week that those anti-gay groups and individuals under the umbrella of Protectmarriage.com that are promoting a state constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage are nearing their goal of gathering 1.1 million signatures to place the initiative on the November ballot. According to Equality for All, the coalition of LGBT and civil rights groups, proponents are reporting that they have collected 881,000 signatures.
Equality for All has been organizing a "decline to sign" campaign, sending volunteers to places where signatures are being collected to engage in discussions with people in an effort to dissuade them from signing the petitions.
This proposed constitutional amendment is dangerous; if it was adopted, the legislature would be prohibited from passing a civil marriage bill, effectively shutting the door to future legislation.
We need to prevent the measure from qualifying for the ballot; interested people should visit http://www.equalityforall.com for information on how they can help.