The Texas Supreme Court ruled against same-sex marriage benefits, ignoring the federal Supreme Court ruling from 2015 that allowed them everywhere. The president tried to prevent trans people from joining the military, though that has mostly failed. Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ Department of Justice supported groups that would discriminate against LGBT people in the name of religious freedom and removed trans people from the law that’s supposed to protect against sex discrimination. Nationally, LGBT rights that might have seemed secure before the 2016 election are in peril: U.S. “Nobody anywhere in this country has been responsible for more political progress for the LGBTQ community than Ken,” says Dave Cortese, who was elected to the San Jose City Council the same year as Yeager and later joined him on the county Board of Supervisors in 2008.īut Yeager will leave office at a critical time for his community. In the ’80s, Yeager sought the first county funding for AIDS services, alongside lesbian activist Wiggsy Sivertsen, then led the push for the county’s “Getting to Zero” program, which aims for zero new HIV infections and AIDS deaths. He raised the first rainbow flag at San Jose City Hall, spearheaded the creation of the county’s Office of LGBT Affairs, one of only a few such county offices nationwide, and pushed for an LGBTQ-focused homeless shelter, likely to open in San Jose before he leaves office. Yeager smashed Santa Clara County’s lavender ceiling, becoming the first gay everything: elected official (in 1992, when he became a San Jose-Evergreen Community College District trustee), San Jose City Council member (District 6, in 2001), and county supervisor (District 4, in 2006). If Franco-Clausen loses, the San Jose council and county board will be without LGBTQ leadership for the first time in 17 years. But no out LGBTQ person has served on San Jose City Council since 2006, when Yeager left to join the county Board of Supervisors.
In Morgan Hill, openly gay Councilman Rene Spring won by a landslide back in 2016. Omar Torres, who is also gay, is running to keep his seat as vice president of the beleaguered Franklin-McKinley school board in San Jose.
On the state level, Evan Low, who was the first openly gay mayor of Campbell, represents the 28th district in the Assembly. County Supervisor Ken Yeager, who has been an elected official in Santa Clara County since 1992, will term out at the end of the year, leaving a void in local LGBT representation that Shay Franco-Clausen hopes to fill. The Franco-Clausens have spent a lot of time walking blocks in Cambrian Park with their 12-year-old son, Josh, as Shay aims to become the first lesbian, the first Afro-Latina, and the first LGBT person of color elected to San Jose City Council in District 9’s June primary election. “There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t remember that I’m a queer woman of color, getting up and walking out into the world,” she says. But even in a city where the pole at the county building flies every possible pride flag, Shay has to think about her partner’s safety. It’s the sort of thing you might expect in North Carolina or Texas, home to so-called “bathroom bills” meant to keep people like Yolanda, whose gender doesn’t fit neatly into a “male” or “female” box, out of public life. Still, Yolanda says, “I would appreciate the opportunity to go to the restroom in peace.” Yolanda can fend for herself, but Shay’s presence-and her conscious, loud references to Yolanda as “girl”-prevent any trouble. “It’s not a pleasant experience,” she says. Otherwise, because she reads masculine, strangers harass her in the women’s room, sometimes aggressively. A local police officer with a slim build and a short haircut, she’d rather hold it until she gets home, or wait until her wife, Shay, can accompany her. Yolanda Franco-Clausen avoids public restrooms.