Assemblywoman maintains her Kuehl

Wednesday, April 24, 1996

UCLA alumna and ex-lecturer campaigns to defend her districtBy
John Digrado

Daily Bruin Staff

At first glance, it’s her size that makes you doubtful. But
after just a few short moments and a couple of words exchanged,
Assemblywoman Sheila Kuehl engages, endears and lets you know just
who is in charge of the 41st California Assembly District.

For Kuehl, a UCLA alumna and former law school lecturer, it’s
just another obstacle overcome, another barrier broken and another
mind changed in a long string of notable successes for the first
openly gay representative in any state assembly.

Kuehl’s latest project is campaigning for reelection in her
district, which includes much of West Los Angeles and the San
Fernando Valley.

But during her undergraduate studies at UCLA in the mid-1950s,
she began her long and distinguished career with television’s Doby
Gillis show.

"I started doing Doby Gillis during my junior year, but at the
same time I’d been asked to be a UniCamp counselor," the Santa
Monica Democrat explained. "And so I went to UniCamp every summer
that I went to UCLA."

The summer job, she said, changed the course of her life
dramatically, opening her eyes to the many injustices of the
world.

"(UniCamp) completely changed the way I thought about what was
an important thing to do in life," she said. "It was way before any
of the civil rights movements ­ there was no consciousness in
my generation about racism or impoverishment, although I grew up
right over by the Coliseum. It felt good to be doing something for
other people, kind of working for what later would be called
‘social justice issues.’"

Those same social justice issues are what drew Kuehl back to
UCLA after her acting career fell through, and eventually she
became the associate dean of students for UCLA’s activist group
advisory organization.

Her appointment came during the throes of the social revolutions
of the late 1960s, and she was assigned to advise some of the most
active student groups on campus during one of the most turbulent
eras of American history.

"The organizations that I was asked to advise were those like
the Women’s Liberation Front, Black Student Union, the Progressive
Labor Party ­ not students that wanted a whole lot of advice,"
she said.

"But it was right in the middle of the student revolution," she
explained. "It was really a growth period as much for me as the
students that I was advising."

This growth continued as Kuehl became an adviser to three
student body presidents, building on what began as a mere interest
in public policymaking.

"The conglomerate result of that was that I had gotten very
interested in social justice issues and (that) I could do it as a
career outside of the university administration," she said.

Inspired by her experiences with the university, Kuehl applied
to UCLA Law School, but was originally turned down because of her
poor grades.

During the Vietnam War, many professors artificially inflated
undergraduate grades to keep students from flunking out of school
and being drafted, she said. Since she had attended school before
the lower standards were enacted, Kuehl’s grades seemed much lower
than they actually were.

Between Kuehl’s graduation from undergraduate studies and her
application to law school, average undergraduate grades had been
raised by almost a full grade point to keep students from failing.
With the assistance of the administration, she contended that her
2.9 cumulative GPA was actually a 3.8.

Kuehl applied again to UCLA, Harvard, Yale and other top-notch
law schools. She was accepted to Harvard and placed on a waiting
list at Yale. Her application, ironically enough, was again
rejected by UCLA Law School.

She returned to UCLA after receiving her law degree from Harvard
to work as an administrator in the off-campus housing office, more
intrigued than ever with public policy.

"I was getting deeply interested in other areas of public policy
that had to do with women’s issues ­ domestic violence, sexual
assault issues ­ as a volunteer lawyer for the Women’s Law
Association of Los Angeles, and in the course of that, I decided
that I wanted to teach law," she said.

Kuehl later left her administrative post to accept a teaching
position at Loyola School of Law, teaching mainly about women’s
legal issues and family law.

"From seeing her as both a student and a colleague, her most
notable characteristic was her commitment to feminism and a whole
range of related issues," said Loyola Law Professor Sam Pillsbury.
"There are many, many issues in not just family law but every (type
of) law where gender issues take a place," he added.

Pillsbury lauded Kuehl for bringing the issues to a level where
students could identify and relate them to the more personal
aspects of the law.

"She’s somebody who has not only the commitment to the issues,
but she also has a particular manner" about presenting material to
students, Pillsbury said.

"(Kuehl is) clearly very committed but she also maintains her
sense of humor and perspective, and because of that, she is able to
open people’s minds to ideas that they might not have been open to
before."

Kuehl left Loyola in 1989 to help co-direct the newly founded
California Women’s L aw Center, aiding in the day-to-day business
of the firm during its first years.

While at the Law Center, her status as one of the nation’s
premier authorities on women’s rights and domestic violence
developed even further.

"(Kuehl) is a major, significant presence against violence
against women," said Abby Leibman, executive director of the
California Women’s Law Center.

"She’s someone who can really say that she has made a major
impact in people’s lives," Leibman said, adding that much of
Kuehl’s legislation and activism has undoubtedly saved the lives of
many victims of domestic abuse.

After her experience testifying and drafting legislation at the
California Women’s Law Center, Kuehl again returned to UCLA ­
this time to teach ­ in 1994.

Professors who worked with Kuehl during her one-year tenure at
UCLA Law School described her as a pleasure to have on the faculty
roster and raved about her commitment to "things that matter."

"One of the exciting things about her classroom work is the way
she combines her thorough knowledge of the field with a lifelong
commitment to helping the victims of abuse," said law Professor
John Wiley. "She brought a commitment to teaching about things that
truly matter, and to doing something about them."

After her stay at UCLA and experience at the California Women’s
Law Center, Kuehl began to realize that there may be a place for
her in public office with the departure of incumbent Assemblyman
Terry Friedman in 1994.

"I was testifying a lot in Sacramento on family law issues and
public safety issues," Kuehl said. "You look around at the people
who are serving and you say to yourself, ‘I can do that.’ I mean,
I’m a Harvard-trained attorney, I care about these issues, I’m
already drafting legislation, I’m already trying to get people to
vote for the legislation ­ that’s the job."

"I woke up in the morning not running for office, and read
(Friedman’s announcement) and decided that I had to run because I
certainly didn’t want to run against an incumbent two years later,"
she explained.

Kuehl ran and won her seat in the Assembly during the November
1994 Republican landslide after a series of articles publicizing
her lifestyle choice.

"It didn’t bother me that there was this focus on it because it
was an aspect of diversity that I think is an important one," she
said.

"I was also very relieved, in a way, that the press did the job
of making certain that every single person in my district knew that
I was a lesbian," Kuehl said.

Her interest in public policy and helping underrepresented
minorities is underscored by her own personal experiences, an
aspect of diversity that she feels has been missing from the
Assembly.

"The only thing that minority status of any kind does is make
you more understanding of the great variety in ways that people
live their lives," she said. "It helps you understand that most of
those (negative) characterizations (of minorities) are essentially
groundless."

In concert with her commitment to underrepresented groups, Kuehl
is in adamant support of maintaining affirmative action policies at
both the University of California and state levels, publicly
opposing last July’s Board of Regents vote on the issue and the
upcoming California Civil Rights Initiative.

Kuehl cited discrepancies in opportunities offered to students
in inner city schools, as opposed to those in more affluent areas
of town, as one of many reasons to maintain affirmative action
policies.

"A lot of times, you don’t get chances out in your
neighborhood," Kuehl explained. "You look at the difference at the
schools in the ‘hood and the schools in West Los Angeles ­
it’s not like the teachers are not struggling. You don’t get the
basics (in those schools). You just don’t get that."

She advocates a revision of the admissions process that would
place less emphasis on test scores and grades and more on personal
aspects of the student’s life ­ aspects that she calls the
"sparkle factor."

"I think in the best of all possible worlds that we would weight
equally your grades, your SATs and other factors that would
indicate your potential for success at the university," Kuehl
explained.

Despite the recent Los Angeles Times allegations of preferential
admissions at UCLA, Kuehl feels that the admissions department has
done its best to maintain the integrity of the university and the
admissions system.

Citing the hypocrisy of regents who voted to do away with the
race-based program but used the "back door" process to admit
certain applicants into the university, she said that the UC is not
at fault for UCLA’s elaborate system of favoritism.

"I think the university is put in a terrible position by these
regents and by other individuals who say to a beleaguered
university whose budget is shrinking every year, ‘Y’know, it would
be a personal favor if you would look at this application.’"

"That’s like saying to a slave, ‘Now, you don’t have to do what
I ask you to do, I just would like you to lick my shoes. What do
you think about that?’" she continued. "And the slave has to
decide: are they really under the feet of this person or do they
really have a free choice?"

In keeping with her commitment against domestic and sexual
violence and her adamant support of the public education system,
Kuehl has proposed and passed legislation for both her district and
the state to crack down on violent crime and better fund the
state’s ailing schools, including UCLA.

One such bill will allow judges presiding over child custody
cases to admit evidence that was previously not allowed for
consideration in an effort to prevent those with a violent history
from taking custody.

Other legislative issues that Kuehl has tackled range from an
unsuccessful attempt to keep landfills out of the Santa Monica
Mountains to allowing electric vehicles in the carpool lanes right
down to homeowner issues in Pacific Palisades.

As for education, Kuehl is on both the state Budget and
Education committees, and she is determined to combat what she
calls the current attack on public education.

"The major concern for my constituents in all parts of the 41st
is the attack on education that the current majority in the
Assembly is making to defund and underfund it," she claimed. "It’s
everything we can do to really hold the line."

The Assembly district has been represented by Democrats for
decades, making Kuehl’s re-election very likely.

Though the November elections are still somewhat far off, Kuehl
has her sights on her next term, making plans to move ahead in her
continuing commitment to social justice issues.

"My job (next term) is to hold some reasonable ground so that we
don’t lose the gains that we have made over the past 25 years,
until we can maybe take back a human-friendly majority in (the
Assembly)," she concluded.

SHAWN LAKSMI

Assemblywoman and UCLA alumna Sheila Kuehl is the first openly
lesbian member of any state assembly in the U.S.