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<\/a>Atkins is now Speaker of the California State Assembly and the representative for 78th district. Gloria recently announced he would be\u00a0running for Atkins\u2019 Assembly seat<\/a>\u00a0after she is termed out next year.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not responsible for them but it paved the way,\u201d Kehoe said. \u201cNow we have district attorneys and city council members for whom being an LGBT candidate or professional or appointee is just part of the conversation \u2014 and it didn\u2019t used to be.\u201d<\/p>\n Kehoe made her way to San Diego after graduating from\u00a0State University of New York, Albany<\/a>, with a Bachelor of Arts in English, more than 30 years ago. Despite not having a job waiting for her, it was a gamble she was willing to take.<\/p>\n \u201cI came to California in the late \u201970s and I just loved it,\u201d she recalled. \u201cRight away, San Diego was my home. I can still remember the first time I saw the Star of India, the palm trees and the water. It was a very liberating experience in a lot of ways, very different from upstate New York. Not having a job, I started volunteering at the Center for Women\u2019s Studies and Social Services, and my community activism grew out of that experience.\u201d<\/p>\n The Women\u2019s Center was located Downtown, at Ninth Avenue and G Street, across from the old Central Library. For Kehoe, working there proved to be an empowering experience. After the Women\u2019s Center, she spent time as a volunteer coordinator for the\u00a0AIDS Assistance Fund<\/a>, which eventually became the\u00a0AIDS Foundation of San Diego<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI loved organizing events and communicating with people, recognizing that they had the confidence that I was going to be a good and fair leader,\u201d she recalled. \u201cI knew I liked doing it, so I just started doing more. The work I was involved in didn\u2019t start out as political activity, in the sense of [seeking an] elected office. It was more about justice and equality. To go from looking at women\u2019s issues to realizing LGBT civil rights, I knew I was fitted for it. I found it very rewarding and wanted to do more of it.\u201d<\/p>\n Kehoe also served as editor of the\u00a0San Diego Gayzette<\/a>, a newspaper for the LGBT community.<\/p>\n \u201cThe idea of running a newspaper was extremely challenging,\u201d Kehoe admitted. \u201cI was scared of it, but I dove in. It was so much larger than I realized, but it taught me so much about Hillcrest and immersed me in the gay community. I was actually coming out at the same time.\u201d<\/p>\n In 1987, Kehoe made the decision to help openly gay candidate\u00a0Neil Good<\/a>\u00a0run for the City Council District 8 seat. Though he didn\u2019t win, it gave Kehoe the knowledge and know-how she\u2019d need when she ran for office five years later, at the suggestion of\u00a0Joyce Beers<\/a>, founder of the\u00a0Asociaci\u00f3n empresarial de Hillcrest<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cJoyce Beers was one of the first persons to talk to me about a political career,\u201d Kehoe explained. \u201cI think she saw things in me that I hadn\u2019t seen. She had encouraged me to take on the Hillcrest Business Association as executive director, because she wanted to retire, and I learned a lot about local policy issues. Neil Good\u2019s campaign helped me understand how important walking precincts were, and that you have to make every vote count. You have to go out and meet the voters. We covered every precinct in the district twice. For whatever reason, the community really came behind me.\u201d<\/p>\n Kehoe served seven years as the District 3 City Council representative, and two terms as State Assembly member, representing the 76th District, before moving onto the senate in 2004. Kehoe was also the founding chair of the Legislative\u00a0LGBT Caucus in 2003<\/a>. While in office, Kehoe\u00a0introduced several bills\u00a0on LGBT rights, including ensuring equal treatment of LGBT domestic partners in insurance benefits and property taxes.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the early 2000s, California was leading the country in attempting to broadly eliminate discrimination based on sexual orientation,\u201d Kehoe noted. \u201cThese bills and others set the stage for great progress later on, in advancing equal civil rights by showing the discriminatory treatment endured by LGBT Californians in so many legal, financial, property, medical and child custody cases.\u201d<\/p>\n In 2012, Kehoe left office due to term limits. Today, she is in her third year as the executive director of the\u00a0California Plug-in Electric Vehicle Collaborative<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cOur mission is to expand the use of electrical vehicles in California, transitioning away from fossil fuels to clean advanced technology vehicles,\u201d Kehoe said. \u201cThat is going to greatly impact California, which is the leader in electric vehicle adaption. Currently, 3 percent in San Diego have adapted electric vehicles. It\u2019s small but it\u2019s growing. With electric cars we\u2019re talking clean air and less pollution.\u201d<\/p>\n The environment has always been important to Kehoe, who as state senator sponsored legislation establishing the\u00a0San Diego River Conservancy<\/a>\u00a0in 2002. Kehoe said that, even though the river runs through Mission Valley, one of San Diego\u2019s busiest and densest neighborhoods, most people hardly notice it.<\/p>\n \u201cThe river is surrounded by a lot of habitat that is good for birds and wildlife,\u201d she explained. \u201c[Through the conservancy], it is being preserved and enhanced, and allows for hiking, biking and wildlife.\u201d<\/p>\n Kehoe lives in North Park with Julie Warren, her partner of 30 years. The couple \u2014 who once registered as domestic partners \u2014 celebrated their milestone anniversary last November by getting married. Legally.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was surprising to us that after 30 years together, our marriage added depth to our long-cherished relationship,\u201d Kehoe said. \u201cThe rights and responsibilities of marriage instantly define the importance of our relationship to ourselves and the world.<\/p>\n \u201cLooking back over the last three decades, the public embrace of marriage equality around the world \u2014 such as what happened recently in\u00a0Ireland<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 is simply amazing,\u201d she continued. \u201cSo many people worked so very hard to lay this groundwork and now the future is brighter for LGBT people almost everywhere \u2014 truly a seismic shift.\u201d<\/p>\n The Local Hero program, launched in 1998, is co-sponsored by KPBS and Union Bank and honors two local residents each month of the calendar year, who go above and beyond for their respective community. Kehoe and Terry Cunningham were chosen as the 2015 Pride Month honorees. Watch for Cunningham\u2019s profile in the next issue of Gay San Diego<\/em> y Uptown News<\/em>.<\/p>\n To learn more about the program, visit kpbs.org\/news\/blogs\/hey-neighbor\/local-heroes\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n
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