Tom Ammiano

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Tom Ammiano (born December 15, 1941), a Democrat, is a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors representing District 9, which encompasses parts of the Mission District, Bernal Heights and Portola neighborhoods. He was elected to the city-wide Board in 1994, and re-elected in 1998, when he became Board President. His efforts to have the Board elected by district instead of city-wide succeeded, and, running as a resident of Bernal Heights, he was elected to the new Board in 2000 and 2004.

In 2008, he is a candidate for the California State Assembly from the 13th district, for which he received the nomination of the Democratic Party in the June 3rd primary.

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Contents 1 Personal life 2 San Francisco Board of Education 3 San Francisco Supervisor 4 1999 mayoral campaign 5 Controversy 6 Further reading 7 References 8 External links

[edit] Personal life

Ammiano grew up in Montclair, New Jersey. He received a bachelor's degree in communications from Seton Hall University in 1963 and a master's degree in special education from San Francisco State University in 1965. He taught English to children in South Vietnam as part of a Quaker program until 1968, when he left shortly after the Tet Offensive.

Ammiano is a former public school teacher. In 1975, he became the first gay public school teacher in San Francisco to make his sexual orientation a matter of public knowledge when the Board of Education voted against including sexual orientation in the district's nondiscrimination clause; a year later the Board reversed its stand. In 1977 he fought the so-called Briggs Initiative, which would have prevented gays and lesbians from teaching in California's public schools.

Aside from his teaching and political activities, Ammiano has been a stand-up comedian since 1980. Sometimes called "The Mother of Gay Comedy," he hosted open-mike comedy at the Valencia Rose cabaret in San Francisco which featured, but was not limited to, lesbian and gay comedians. He also appeared in the Oscar-winning documentary The Times of Harvey Milk.

Ammiano was in a 16-year domestic partnership with a fellow schoolteacher, Tim Curbo, who died of complications from AIDS in 1994. He has one daughter and is now a grandfather.

[edit] San Francisco Board of Education

In 1980 and 1988, Ammiano ran for the San Francisco Board of Education, and was elected in 1990. He was subsequently elected its vice-president in 1991, and then president in 1992.

As president of the Board of Education, Ammiano was successful in his efforts to include a gay and lesbian sensitivity curriculum for all students in the San Francisco Unified School District. He helped to make San Francisco public schools' sexual education curriculum, which begins diversity and sensitivity training in kindergarten, one of the most diverse and inclusive in the United States.

[edit] San Francisco Supervisor

Among his accomplishments on the Board of Supervisors is the creation of the San Francisco Health Care Security Ordinance, which was passed by a unanimous vote of the Board of Supervisors and signed by Mayor Gavin Newsom on August 7, 2006. This makes San Francisco the first city in the nation to provide universal healthcare access.^[1][2][3] Ammiano is also the main architect of the city's Domestic Partners Ordinance, which provides equal benefits to employees and their unmarried domestic partners. It also requires companies that do business with the City and County of San Francisco to provide the same benefits. Ammiano was the first Supervisor ever to participate in Bike to Work Day.

[edit] 1999 mayoral campaign

In the San Francisco mayoral race of 1999, Ammiano mounted a successful write-in campaign in the November election, preventing the incumbent Willie Brown from achieving a victory without a run-off. While he lost that second election in December, Ammiano's campaign galvanized progressive voters in San Francisco and had a major impact on the composition of the new, more liberal Board of Supervisors the next year. Ammiano ran for mayor again in 2003, but did not win enough votes to make that run-off after Superversior Matt Gonzalez entered the race, taking progressive voters from him.

[edit] Controversy

In 1999, Ammiano came into conflict with some in San Francisco's Catholic community when the Board of Supervisors, at Ammiano's request, granted the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a charity group of drag queen nuns, a street-closure permit for Castro Street for their 20th anniversary celebration on Easter Sunday.^{[4][5][6][7][8]} Some believe the controversy, which was repeatedly brought up by Ammiano's Catholic detractors, may have hurt his 1999 mayoral bid among San Francisco Catholics.

[edit] Further reading

• Kevin Fagan and John Wildermuth. "Ammiano's Long Road From Jersey Kid to Mayoral Candidate," San Francisco Chronicle, November 13, 1999.
• Erin McCormick. "Ammiano's career as an 'inside outsider,'" San Francisco Examiner, December 7, 1999.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• San Francisco City Government profile page
• Campaign Without Precedent: Tom Ammiano's Run for San Francisco Mayor
• Tom Ammiano for Mayor of San Francisco!

Political offices
Preceded by Election not district-specific	Member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors District 9 1994 – present	Incumbent

v • d • e San Francisco Board of Supervisors Jake McGoldrick • Michela Alioto-Pier • Aaron Peskin • Carmen Chu • Ross Mirkarimi • Chris Daly • Sean Elsbernd • Bevan Dufty • Tom Ammiano • Sophie Maxwell • Gerardo Sandoval