After an intensive, four-year lobbying effort on the part of the Harvard Gay and Lesbian Caucus, Harvard University alumni/ae have elected the first-ever gay or lesbian member of the Board of Overseers. Sheila James Kuehl J.D. '78, openly lesbian speaker pro tem of the California State Assembly, will serve a two-year term on the Board, filling the unexpired term of an Overseer who unexpectedly resigned. The results of the election were announced in June at the annual meeting of the Harvard Alumni Association.
Kuehl is a pioneering civil rights attorney and law professor who co-founded the California Women's Law Center and is a national trainer on domestic violence issues. "As the first open lesbian or gay person elected to the California Legislature," she wrote in an article in the summer 1997 issue of the Harvard Gay & Lesbian Review, "I understand 'the power of the first' and the profound impact such an accomplishment can have on that loosely gathered band we call our 'community.'" Indeed, observers say that she will do much to influence policy and issues concerning Harvard's gay, lesbian and bisexual faculty, students, and alumni/ae.
"In the California legislature, Sheila has proven to be a sharp, articulate advocate who knows how to make her colleagues, whatever their politcal stripe, feel that she's really listening," notes HGLC member Tom Parry, the first openly gay person to be elected to the board of the Harvard Alumni Association. "And in return, they are willing to take her and her ideas seriously. I think she'll be a very successful and popular Overseer. We couldn't have done better."
Caucus members worked diligently to lobby for Kuehl's victory. "Bullet voting"-casting a ballot for a single candidate on a slate that contained nine candidates-was encouraged, and seems to have been the crucial factor in ensuring a successful outcome in a very close election. (Kuehl was voted sixth out of six candidates elected, and won by only 81 votes.) "The Caucus can take pardonable pride in the role it played to get Sheila nominated, and to get her elected," says HGLC co-chair Bob Mack. "The bullet votes of Caucus members were essential to her success. Her election establishes that alumni/ae-straight and gay alike-will vote for a gay candidate."
Mack cautions, however, that Kuehl's renomination to the Board in 1999 is not guaranteed: "If we are to re-elect her to a full term in another two years, or elect other gay, lesbian, or bisexual candidates in the future, we must work harder, more of us must vote, and we must reach out to more straight alumni/ae."
For now, however, Caucus members and their supporters are joyful and optimistic about this latest milestone in Harvard's history. "Sheila Kuehl's election is a major step forward in the relationship between Harvard and its gay and lesbian alumni/ae," states Mack. "Her nomination recognizes that we constitute a legitimate minority which is entitled to be part of Harvard's electoral process. Sheila embraces her lesbian identity with pride. When issues of vital importance to our community arise she will be a clear and confident advocate."
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