This post was submitted by raphael

John Pérez, a first-year assemblyman from  Los Angeles, may soon be Speaker of the California Assembly, making him the head of the legislative branch of our state government, and one of the most powerful GLBT politicians in our nation.

There are very few out gay politicians who hold a statewide office in any state in the US. In fact, the most prominent out gay politician to hold such a position was Jim McGreevy, former NJ governor, whose coming out speech as also his resignation and earned his distinction for only a few weeks in office.*

Pérez represents the 46th district, which includes much of downtown and East LA. He is cousin of LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, and there’s some opposition to him among Assembly Democrats for perceptions of political favoritism and backroom dealmaking. It has been implied that the Mayor had something to do with Pérez’s rivals withdrawing from the competition for speaker, and there’s controversy about Pérez’s authorship of AB813, a bill that almost singularly helped Villaraigosa’s friend Philip Anschutz make millions off the sale of ads for liquor.

Any purported strongarming from Villaraigosa has failed to remove all obstacles from Pérez’s ascension to speakership. Kevin DeLeon, another Los Angeles Democrat, is still actively campaigning for the position. But with support from many corners, including current speaker Karen Bass, Pérez is likely to win the vote on Wednesday or Thursday.

*A qualification of Pérez’s distinction:

A search at the Victory Fund website shows a few out GLBTs who hold statewide office. There are, of course, several out representatives to state legislatures, but they only represent their districts, and therefore I do not count them as statewide. There are plenty of appointees to boards and commissions, several justices (generally on lower and middle courts, but a few superior courts too), but only three out people who were elected to a statewide office: Oregon’s Secretary of State Kate Brown, and two of Oregon’s Supreme Court Justices, Virginia Linder and Rives Kistler. What is it about Oregon?

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