On Friday, Los Angeles County LGBTQ+ Elected Officials (LACLEO) celebrated the inaugural installation of its founding board members and board members-at-large.

LACLEO met for the first time last summer and officially formed the nonprofit this April. Their formal swearing-in of the board signals, especially as the November election nears, that they are mobilizing to win. 

But winning isn’t everything. It’s the support network LACLEO provides and its focus on LGBTQ+ advocacy that makes the organization a significant addition to the region. 

In the historically exclusionary California Club – it only began granting memberships to people of color and women in 1987 – a more inclusive vision was feted on Friday. In a cavernous and chandeliered meeting hall, all 14 board members of the new organization were sworn in by L.A. Supervisor Hilda Solis. District Attorney George Gascon, Senator Maria Elena Durazo, and Assemblymember Laura Friedman attended alongside trailblazers in the LGBTQ+ community in the county and the nation. 

Representing the Westside, Culver City Unified School Board Vice President Triston Ezidore, 

West Hollywood Mayor John Erickson and West Hollywood Councilmember John Heilman were installed as board members at large. Former West Hollywood Mayor and current county Assessor Jeffrey Prang was installed as the Board Chair.

There are more than 50 openly LGBTQ+ elected officials in L.A. County. According to the LGBTQ+ Victory Institute, there are upwards of 1,305 nationwide with California having the most of any state: 185. Of those 185, L.A. County boasts the greatest concentration. LGBTQ+ electeds serve as our city and neighborhood council members, our mayors, and our school board members. 

On Friday, Assessor Prang remarked that the political milieu he entered in the late 1980s as an activist was much more limited than it is today. “There were only a handful of LGBTQ+ elected officials in the entire country.” 

But despite the remarkable progress made nationally towards full and equal rights for LGBTQ+ Americans, Prang, and his peers recognized worrying gaps that have only deepened as anti-LGBTQ+ legislation and policy threaten communities in L.A. County and nationwide. 

“In spite of our achievements, we are very clear that this is not the time to be complacent,” Prang said. “In some ways, the LGBTQ+ community is less prepared in terms of civic infrastructure.” LACLEO was formed to rebuild that infrastructure – to support and cultivate a healthy and proactive ecosystem of LGBTQ+ leaders, organizations, and media.

In June, the L.A. Board of Supervisors created the county’s very first LGBTQ+ commission. Because the community has been visible and vocal in L.A. politics, supportive policies in the county have made life better for many. But in spite of progressive policies, the majority of LGBTQ+ people “Struggle with the cost of living, safety, and discrimination,” according to recent studies from the Williams Institute at UCLA. One-third of LGBTQ+ in L.A. county live below 200 percent of the Federal Poverty Level and even more experience some level of food insecurity and housing insecurity. Transgender Angelenos are especially affected – supportive policies aside, the material conditions most of the county lives in tend to keep marginalized communities down. 

While the Westside is perhaps thought of as a leader in the county for LGBTQ+ representation and policies, it is not some utopia and certainly not insulated from anti-LGBTQ+ hate. Triston Ezidore, Vice President of Culver City Unified School District, recently led his district in a response to an anti-Black and homophobic incident at an elementary school. 

Over his first two years serving Culver City Unified, he has expanded critical resources for LGBTQ+ students and families as anti-LGBTQ+ groups have focused much of their ire on schools. 

“We’ve had a disproportionate target on our backs, on the backs of our kids, on the backs of our community,” Ezidore told Westside Voice. 

When Culver City Unified raised the Pride Progress flag for the first time this June, Ezidore heard critics malign the act as performative. 

“What about our kids who are seeing this national attack?” Ezidore said. “It meant a lot to our LGBTQ+ students and our allies as a symbol of who is represented and who belongs in our communities.”

Ezidore attended Culver City Unified and became the first Black man to serve on the board. At 19, he became the youngest person in L.A. County to take an elected office in 2022. 

“I’m of the belief that you can’t be what you can’t see,” Ezidore said. LACLEO is tasked with the responsibility to create opportunities for new leaders from communities that have been historically excluded and underrepresented in public office. “For those of us, specifically myself, who are first in that capacity, I think that is not lost on us.” 

For Ezidore, LACLEO just makes sense. In sprawling L.A. County, he explained it’s not only efficient but necessary for him and his colleagues to work together on initiatives and policies across the board. On the Westside, Ezidore has seen the benefits of regional policy-making. “If we’re going to actually address issues at the scale that they need to be addressed, it’s important that we lock arms with regional partners,” he said. 

West Hollywood Mayor John Erickson told Westside Voice that LACLEO will formalize and strengthen networks of support for LGBTQ+ elected officials, saying, “Now that we have the skeletal base, we can put the muscle on it.” 

More than just getting LGBTQ+ people elected, LACLEO is concerned with supporting them once they’re in office.  LACLEO members can then funnel that support back to their constituents.  “It’s not just about being an elected, it’s making sure people know they have a community behind them. It’s good when you don’t feel alone.”

Erickson, who has been in West Hollywood politics for more than a decade, said he had the necessary support he needed when he first started out. LACLEO will work to give other electeds the same opportunity. On Friday, he credited Councilmember John Heilman and Assessor Jeffrey Prang with shepherding entire generations of LGBTQ+ politicians. “I know so many of us here are beneficiaries of the work they continue to do.” 

In an interview with NBC Los Angeles earlier this year, Burbank Vice Mayor and LACLEO Co-Vice Chair Nikki Perez said the organization was formed in response to a “Lack of unifying advocacy.” Anti-trans legislation, municipal policies that make LGBTQ+ people unwelcome, and threats to LGBTQ+ elected officials for their sexual orientation and gender identity make now the necessary time to build an organized front.  

For more isolated colleagues, who are facing reactionary, discouraging, and sometimes violent opponents, LACLEO will fight alongside them.

Photo courtesy of the Office of Assessor Jeffrey Prang.