Los Angeles — Equality California announced today that it has endorsed Los Angeles attorney Susan Jerich for Los Angeles County Superior Court judge and Greg Rodriguez to represent District 42 (Palm Springs) in the California Assembly.
Jerich currently is an attorney with the law firm of Silver, Hadden, Silver & Levine in Santa Monica. She graduated from the University of San Francisco School of Law and is a former assistant U.S. attorney for Northern California, a former San Francisco assistant district attorney, and former internal counsel at eBay. She also has served in volunteer and leadership capacities with a number of LGBT and women’s rights organizations, including on Equality California’s Equality Council. In addition, she is the only openly LGBT member of the Los Angeles County Consumer and Business Affairs Commission.
“Susan is extremely well qualified to serve on the Superior Court. Her qualifications and commitment to fairness, as well as her extensive community service, won our endorsement,” said Rick Zbur, executive director of Equality California. “Very few members of the bench in Los Angeles are openly LGBT. Electing highly qualified officials like Susan to every level and every branch of government is vitally important to our community both in terms of representation of LGBT people, and as role models to our community and youth.”
Greg Rodriguez is a former district director for U.S. Rep. Raul Ruiz (D-Palm Springs). Rodriguez has been active in LGBT, Democratic and education-related issues since shortly after graduating from college. Since moving to Palm Springs in 2006, he has been the treasurer of the Desert Stonewall Democrats and serves on the Campaign Board of the Victory Fund. He also has served on the board of the Desert AIDS Project. A father of two teenaged sons, he is a former PTA president and served on various committees of the Palm Springs Unified School District.
“Greg has the background needed to be an effective advocate not just for LGBT people, but for all families and students,” said Zbur. “His experience working with a range of policy issues, from education to equal rights for everyone to HIV/AIDS, will enable him to get right to work in Sacramento at making California a better place for all its residents.”
The Equality California Political Action Committee endorses viable candidates who have a proven track record of supporting equal rights and legal protections for LGBT Californians and who are committed to advancing these goals in their capacity as elected officials.
Both Jerich and Rodriguez will appear on the June, 2016 ballot.
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Equality California is the nation’s largest statewide lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender civil rights organization dedicated to creating a fair and just society. Our mission is to achieve and maintain full and lasting equality, acceptance, and social justice for all people in our diverse LGBT communities, inside and outside of California. Our mission includes advancing the health and well-being of LGBT Californians through direct healthcare service advocacy and education. Through electoral, advocacy, education and mobilization programs, we strive to create a broad and diverse alliance of LGBT people, educators, government officials, communities of color and faith, labor, business, and social justice communities to achieve our goals. www.eqca.org