Sunday, June 24, 2012

Out Spotlight

Today's Out Spotlight became the first openly gay California legislator in 1994. In 1997, she was the first woman in California to be named Speaker pro Tempore. She was also a member of the nation’s first legislative LGBT Caucus. In 2002, she coauthored a bill that defined marriage as a civil contract between two persons, which passed the state legislature, but was vetoed by the governor.  She is also was a part of one of the iconic shows in the golden age of television.  An actor, activist and academic today's Out Spotlight is Sheila Kuehl.

The daughter of a Catholic airplane construction worker and his Jewish wife, Kuehl grew up in Los Angeles and glided through school. A natural ham, she landed her first paid acting role at age 8 on a radio series. "I learned about professional behavior, showing up on time, knowing your lines, not stepping on someone else's laughs."

As a young actress with the stage name Sheila James, she played Jackie, Stuart Erwin's tomboy daughter, in the television show Trouble With Father, which was later retitled The Stu Erwin Show.  But she is best known for her portrayal of the "irrepressible" Zelda Gilroy in the long-running 1960s TV show The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis. The running gag was Zelda's roaring crush on Dobie, and his resistance to her advances. The program spawned two sequels, an unsold television pilot, Whatever Happened to Dobie Gillis? (1978) and TV movie Bring Me the Head of Dobie Gillis (1988). In these, Dobie had married Zelda and had a son named Georgie, who was like Dobie had been at his age. Kuehl reprised her Zelda role in both updates.

Although her character Zelda was popular enough for CBS to plan a spin-off, the pilot was canceled. A network representative later explained she was “just a little too butch.” During the same time, she was banned from her sorority house when letters from her girlfriend exposed her sexuality.

She co-starred in the short-lived television series Broadside, a female version of the hit show McHale's Navy during the 1964-65 season.  After the show's cancellation,  television roles started to dry up, she transitioned into academia getting a job as a campus adviser to student groups at UCLA and eventually became an associate dean of students.

At age 34,  she was admitted into Harvard Law School, where she excelled being elected class marshal and president of law school student council. In 1978, her final year at the law school, she chaired the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the 1953 graduation of the first group of women to be admitted to Harvard Law School. That same academic year, she became the first woman to win "Best Oralist" in the law school's prestigious Ames Moot Court Competition, judged by a panel including Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.

Kuehl went into private law practice specializing in civil rights and women’s issues. She advocated for victims of domestic abuse and cofounded the California Women’s Law Center in 1989. She taught law at UCLA, University of Southern California and Loyola University. 

Elected to the California State Assembly in 1994, she become the first openly gay person elected to the California legislature. She was later a founding member of the California Legislative LGBT Caucus. She served as Speaker pro tempore during the 1997–98 legislative session, becoming the first woman in California history to hold the position. After three terms in the Assembly, she was elected to the California State Senate in 2000, beating Assemblyman Wally Knox in the Democratic primary and becoming the first openly gay person elected to the Senate. Re-elected in 2004 with 65.7% of the vote, she has repeatedly been voted the "smartest" member of the California Legislature.


 In 2002, she coauthored a bill that defined marriage as a civil contract between two persons, which passed the state legislature, but was vetoed by the governor.

In 2004, Senator Kuehl authored Senate Bill 1234, an omnibus act intended to protect Californians from hate crimes, which it defined as criminal acts committed in whole or in part because of the victims' actual or perceived disability, gender, nationality, race or ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, or association with persons with any of those characteristics. Her bill targeted crimes, not First Amendment-protected speech. It also protected illegal immigrants from deportation due to reporting hate crimes, increased civil protections from discrimination, and provided for law enforcement training concerning crimes against homeless persons and law enforcement response to homelessness. Governor Schwarzenegger signed the bill into law.

In 2006, she sponsored a bill that would prohibit the adoption by any school district in California of any instructional material that discriminates against persons based on their gender or sexual orientation.



Throughout her career as a legislator, Kuehl took a leadership role on health care policy. Her foremost objective was securing passage of legislation to establish a single-payer health care system in California. SB 840 passed both houses of the legislature in 2006, but was vetoed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger; it was reintroduced in 2007 and again passed the state Senate, with a vote pending in the Assembly. SB 840 passed both houses of the California legislature in August 2008 and was, again, vetoed by Governor Schwarzenegger.

By the end of her political career in 2008 she had authored over 171 bills that had been signed into law.

Kuehl is the recipient of the John F. Kennedy Profiles In Courage Award (2003); the C50 Award, Celebrating 50 years of Women at the Harvard Law School (2003); the Outstanding Legislator Award from the Southern California Public Health Association (2003); the Victory Fund Leadership Award (2005); the Building a State of Equality Award from Equality California (2006); and the UCLA LGBT Center Distinguished Service Award (2007).

 “The hardest thing I ever did, coming out, turns out to give me a reputation almost instantly for honesty and courage, which any politician would kill for.”
  


And for the naysayers of twitpics.... here you go.

35 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  2. You're pathetic, 22:57. And because your name reflects a sexual harassing term, I'm going to ask that the offensive acronym be removed along with the entire jealousy-ridden comment.

    Unless of course, you are referring to yourself?? In which case, it's hilarious.

    Jealous is as jealous does.

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  4. A month after that, a play pinging loudly on my radar screen hits Off-Broadway. Called “If There Is I Haven’t Found It Yet,” it’ll mark Jake Gyllenhaal’s American stage debut. (He did “This Is Our Youth” in London.)

    Written by Nick Payne, who’s based in London, where the comedy premiered in 2009, the story revolves around an overweight teen and her — you guessed it — estranged uncle, Terry.

    "Brokeback Mountain" Oscar nominee Gyllenhaal plays the uncle. And it sounds like a juicy part. Terry has been described as a “heartbroken drifter,” “slacker-ish” and “erratic.”

    In other words, he’s an unc who’s exactly on trend.

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  5. Fascinating spotlight and I love the quote in the last line about coming out. Honesty and courage are traits that are revered in any line of business, not just politics. And including acting.

    MGM channel is doing a gay theme in honor of Gay Pride month and is showing gay themed films and bits of a documentary about gays in film. I watched My Beautiful Laundrette for the 20th or so time. Not sure if they are doing one film per day or one per week as I only caught the ads during "intermission" but if you get that channel you may want to check it out. Of course its probably been like this all month but I missed a lot of TV since we were on vacation. This may be old news to all of you.

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  6. filming today: twitter

    filming yesterday: IHJ

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  7. Another person I know nothing about, thanks as usual for another interesting Spotlight. Nice to see her have a great second career after the acting work dried up because she was "too butch".

    I didn't even know there was an MGM channel, and we certainly don't get it. Too bad, sounds like a good one to have.

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  8. Oops, I need to learn to tell time up there at 00:19, lol.

    Interesting spotlight. I recognize Gilligan's Bob Denver. Now that I look at her, I wonder if she had any roles in some of those beach party movies because she looks kind of familiar the more I look at her.

    What accomplishments Sheila Kuehl has had. Wow. I can't imagine racking up that kind of resume.

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  9. m, I've never heard of the MGM channel. They must show tons of great movies, especially a lot of Judy Garland. I don't know that we have that around here.

    Man, Jake looks like some of my past teachers in high school and college. Some of those guys just had that rumpled, disorganized, unshowered look to them, didn't they?

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  10. Thanks for the heads up on the new pics at IHJ.

    I used to watch Dobie on Nick at Night.

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  11. from previous post 6/22June 25, 2012 at 12:53 PM

    I know it is redundant but when you look at so many couples after years being together, not many still have that same sparkle when they did when first got together. Jake and Austin do.

    Special, are you sure you're not on the Payroll working as the lead person for the Public Releations (PR) firm "Jake and Austin are GAY/MARRIED" team? Sure seems like it. You push this agenda alot and furiously. Your talking points are relentless. It's always your discussion especially when things are slow ala J/A and when the J/A fans here get restless ans worried. You up the ante on how lovely and loving they are as a couple. Then you pull out all the pictures from what, 2005-06. LOL
    You've done it many a times.
    Are you aware of this?
    YES, I know you are.

    The main thing a PR person does is try to discredit what another PR firm does or, change the perception of the client as they (the PR firm) want it to be.

    Now you talk about PR alot, Are YOU not one yourself.
    If not, you "should" be getting a paycheck.
    hummm, Just Asking....

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  12. I don't care if you aren't talking to me, UV.

    Everyone? Meet UV at 12:53.

    Lawgoddess. Bamgoddess on Twitter who had to cease tweeting on that account when she was called out on it here on OMG. Whatever in the heck you want to call yourself at this hour in time. I see, today at this moment, it is "From Previous Post 6/22".

    "The Person Who Thinks They Know It All at 12:53 and thinks some of us don't know who she is" is only projecting onto the blog administrator what she herself is fearing the most.

    The core here on OMG don't need convincing. We don't need to constantly be rocking in our Glider Recliners to feel assured of what we are so confident about.

    We don't need to constantly be talking about it on the blog to know what we know. There is nothing to talk about right now re: Jaustin. Most of what we do see, we share via phone and email mostly anyway. You don't know the 1/2 of it and you're not going to know it.

    Special has class. Something you know little about. Shall we see an example? Let me show Exhibit A.

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  14. Whewwww....not going down that road. No need to sully up our blog. Ha, if you were quick, you saw it.

    But I will end with this.

    You know, I've seen some nastiness from people but that is just pure mean heartedness. It's just through & through mean.

    Don't mess with this blog. You know why? Because it's not going anywhere. You're just making someone like myself dig my heels in deeper.

    Tell you something else. Not only is the blog not going away. And Prairie Girl isn't going away.

    But the Jake you don't want to see isn't going away.

    And Jake being with Austin isn't going away.

    And Jake being a father isn't going away. That one really isn't ever going away because they're his kids for life.

    There is all kinds of talk and a couple of pictures on the internet right now regarding filming today. I'm not sure why someone would rather be on OMG spitting at an individual when they could be having a great time conversing with their fellow bloggers about the new stuff.

    It tells you where their worry is, that's why. A Troll bullies the person or blog that they actually fear and worry about the most.

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  15. M&M, throw me another sandbag, won't ya? Tom? m? Sandbags, please?

    Gotta build us a little fort here because we seem to be under attack lately. lol. Better stock up on the ol' Cheez Its.

    People are tweeting like crazy from that campus where they're filming. Some of them are quite entertaining and funny.

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  16. haaris ‏@aaeris
    Oh snap Jake gyllenhal told us to gtfo. Sorry Jake I'm 2 starstruck
    12:25 PM - 25 Jun 12 via Twitter for Android · Details


    haaris ‏@aaeris

    I just got told to stfu by Jake gyllenhals sound guy at UTSC. So awesome
    12:20 PM - 25 Jun 12 via Twitter for Android · Details

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  17. I don't care if you aren't talking to me, UV.

    Everyone? Meet UV at 12:53.


    Sorry Ms KNOWITALL, or should I say, PG. Not UV, just a sometime lurker.
    I know you think you have a grip on everything including everyone else's "Reality", but you don't.
    As soon as you can accept this you might stop flying off the handle at everything said. Nobody, including SK asked for your sanction on things as she or (I) see it. That comment was my point of veiw and I said it,and I meant it, but again, YOU rush to the defense waging your finger as the overseers, judge, and disciplinarian. Typical

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  18. ^^^ and again, look at how many times you post. Does anyone else have anything to say or is this the Prairiegirl blog?

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  19. Wow, that took you an awwwwwful long time to recover, didn't it????

    Ahhh, love seeing other people get all hacked off for once.

    ;D

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  20. Interesting what you find out when you go taking a perusing patrol ride.

    You find ammunition for a later time.

    ;)

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  21. Not UV, just a sometime lurker.

    How are the two different?

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  22. It's rather amusing that PG is now using the UV name as a catch-all for those who have a differing opinion instead of old stalwart "Jack".

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  23. No, what's rather amusing is that apparently you have nowhere else to hang out at other than here.

    What's rather amusing is that you have nothing else going on your side of the fence so all you have left is to dissect and obsess about what I say on the blog about the trolls.

    Time to dig out an old avatar. I feel like revisiting this moment in time.

    Let's see you dissect and obsess about the real focus of this blog.


    Jake and Austin.

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  24. I have missed UV. I wonder if she still believes Jake and Reese were a couple? I still do:-)

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  25. And it's Prairie Girl to you.


    Look at that avatar. There they are. Austin has no idea of the power he holds over the trolls, does he? lol


    Remember the days when trolls nearby used to gloat and go on and on about how Jake and Austin hadn't been seen together for how long? They were on opposite sides of the US all the time, never kept in contact, never in the same city at the same time? Oh, some went so far as to say that well, they may have been f-buddies at one time, but clearly they were done with each other and not in contact anymore.

    Then we caught Austin in Leadville CO. Remember that? Good ol' Brandon Fuller, bless his little pea-pickin' heart. We had no pictures, just a blogger report that Jake was there.

    Then that picture leaked and PR acted right away, sending out pictures of Jake with random folks at the race. Apparently that day it was not a "No, not today" kind of day for pictures, lol. They did that because they knew they could do nothing about that picture out on the internet. It belonged to a civilian blogger so you know they were just biting their finger hoping no one would ever spot Austin in the pic.

    Well......lol.

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  26. So the Troll insisted that wasn't Austin. "Lookit the ear! Lookit the ear!" Yeah, right.

    We bided our time. They continued to taunt.

    Then Jake appeared together with Austin and Sophia together on Memorial Day weekend 2 years ago. Ohhhhhhhh noooo, it was to promote Sophin, didn't you know? Didn't you know that? Jake & Austin hooked up one time in 2010 to promote Sophin. Why, of course!! Silly me.

    Yeah, whatever. We continued to bide our time.

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  27. After the ol' Tay Swift debaucle, Jake hasn't dated a woman since. Then Austin and Sophia broke up, right at the end of One Tree Hill, just like so many predicted.

    And suddenly.....yogurt in California!

    "Oh, that didn't happen. Those were OTH girls, It was a set up. No pictures, where are the pictures? Fan fic, fan fic!"

    Isn't that what the Troll said? Not true, not true!

    What came next, people?


    Sushi, am I not correct? I say, am I not correct on that one? Do I hear an Amen?!!!!!

    And who left with whom in that loooooong photo op that was so audibly and clearly choreographed.

    Did Austin leave with Levine on his motorcycle? Uh, no.. Did Austin leave with Gene Hong? Uh....no. Did Austin leave with the PR Old Man in his vehicle? Uh....no. Did Austin leave with either of the other bandmates who were in that photo op? What? I can't hear you.


    No. Just who did Austin leave with? Who did Austin leave with in plain, visible sight, no question about it, he even walked around the car to show that he was undoubtedly, indubitably getting into the same car as Jake. Not only that, but with the Old Man. Talk about a big stamp of approval.

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  28. Now you hear a few rocks falling just before the landslide, don't you?

    "Welllllll, of course they're still friends!! What's the big deal? We knew they were friends!! Nothing more, nothing less."


    lol



    Isn't that what the Troll said after the big Sushi Photo Op?

    Then what happened? What happened in February after the Sushi?

    Did the boys take their act on the road? Why, I think....I do declare I think they did.

    But do we have pictures to back it up? Do we really have more than just a Dana Dalaney tweet to verify that the mysterious Austin N. was indeed overseas at the same time as Mr. Jake??

    Why, Virginia, I do believe we do.

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  30. End of Days.... nice try ... it's End of Watch 8:45.

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  31. Remember the days when trolls nearby used to gloat and go on and on about how Jake and Austin hadn't been seen together for how long?

    Remember when PrairieGirl and Methodical Muser and Special K and The Real M and Jersey Tom said that Jake and Austin weren't allowed to be seen in the same city or state together because of End of Watch? Remember when that was the excuse OMG trotted out for why Jake and Austin were never seen together? And then do you remember how Jake and Austin were filmed together leaving a restaurant and suddenly OMG developed collective amnesia and completely forgot their previous theory? And then Jake and Austin were at a film festival together and the collective amnesia kicked into overdrive?

    And then do you remember how they haven't been seen together since and now PrairieGirl and Methodical Muser and Special K and The Real M and Jersey Tom have suddenly remembered that PR are keeping them separate or hiding the evidence that proves they've spent time together?

    Do you remember when it was shown that Austin couldn't have grown enough facial hair to match the man in the Leadville picture after shooting LOL, and how that (along with being Austin being taller and having a different ear to the Leadville guy) proved that in wasn't Austin in the Leadville picture? Do you remember how embarrassing it was to see the scramble to explain that away?

    Because I remember it all.


    Spirit gum...hahahahaha

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  32. And I've made sure to double check that I have my screen name in place, so please don't delete me again Special K.

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  33. Special K said...
    End of Days.... nice try ... it's End of Watch 8:45.


    LOL oh that's classic. The dyslexic chastising someone else. You are something else!

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  34. Sick of my avatar yet, Troll? Good, I hope so. Here's another one to finish it off.


    Berlinale 2012. Pretty important gig for Jake, wasn't it?

    The Troll said, "Well, it's obvious Austin was over in Germany to look at films and schmooze, job hunt and to see the countryside."

    Oh, he was there to see a countryside all right, but it wasn't a landscape composed of dirt and grass, I can tell you that right now.

    Seems to me we have some very powerful video. Video that Special put up a screencap from in her post on Saturday.

    A high profile, formal dinner.

    What you are looking at in that dinner video is as close to a red carpet event as we have seen Jake walk in the accompaniment of a date for how long? OH wait!!!! Is that - why, I think that actually IS a red carpet that Jake and Austin are walking on in that picture, is it not? Yes, I do believe so.

    A dinner like this, you don't just tell the Berlinale Committee, "Oh hey, I have a buddy? Austin Nichols? And he just happens to be here too. It's all right if he comes along, isn't it? Can you set another plate?"

    Oh no. I don't think that's going to fly.

    Plus, you had the President of Germany at one of these functions. Austin had to have security clearance. "Oh hey, I just happened to run into this buddy of mine, can he? Can you??? Can we???? It's okay, isn't it? I know it's last minute...."

    Oh no. No, no, no, no.

    So it's more than just one set of Laker pictures, I would say. I think we're sitting on a pretty solid, significant photo album here.

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  35. So it's more than just one set of Laker pictures, I would say. I think we're sitting on a pretty solid, significant photo album here.

    Yes, it's one of those photo albums where 98% of the pages are empty and none of them have any pictures of children on them. Just the kind of photo album I'd want to sit on if I believed Jake and Austin had been in a relationship for a decade and had five children together!

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