Legislative Reception

Celebrating the Diversity of Legislators in Attendance in addition to our trailblazer awardees and Diversity Caucus Leaders

While most legislators fall under numerous intersectional categories, we’d like to take a moment to acknowledge one distinct aspect of each individual legislator in attendance to demonstrate how truly diverse our California legislature is becoming. 

We now have 12 LGBTQ+ Legislators. Several of these trail blazers were in attendance, including:

• Senator John Laird, who in 1983 became one of the first openly gay mayors to serve in the United States

• Latino Caucus Member, Assemblymember Rick Chavez Zbur, who, prior to joining the legislature, was the Executive Director of Equality California, the largest statewide LGBTQ+ civil rights organization, where under his leadership the organization quadrupled in size.

• AAPI Caucus Member, Assemblymember Alex Lee, who when he was elected in 2020, became the youngest Asian American legislator ever elected and first openly bisexual state legislator in California history. Assemblymember Lee is an example of the increasing diversity among AAPI Legislators which is important to note because our AANHPI communities are not a monolith. 

We now have 14 Legislators who are AAPI and we acknowledged our other AAPI legislators who were in attendance, including:

• Assemblymember Ash Kalra who is the first Hindu in California Legislature

• Assemblymember Tri Ta, who when he became Mayor of Westminster in 2012, made history becoming the first Vietnamese-American elected mayor in the United States.

Other AAPI Legislators who were in attendance include:

• Assemblymember Philip Chen

• Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi 

• Assemblymember Vince Fong

• Assemblymember Stephanie Nguyen

BIPOC representation in the legislature continues to grow. We now have 35 Latinx Legislators and 12 Black Legislators. 

While there is still room for improvement, the backgrounds of our legislators more and more reflect the diversity of our state. 

We had legislators in attendance whose lived experiences include being first generation immigrants, such as

• Latino Caucus Member, Assemblymember Blanca Rubio

• Latino Caucus Member, Assemblymember Juan Carrillo

We had legislators in attendance whose lived experiences include being second generation immigrants, such as

• Latino Caucus Member Assemblymember Avelino Valencia

• Latino Caucus Member Assemblymember Miguel Santiago

• Assemblymember Bill Essayli 

We had legislators in attendance whose lived experiences include being third generation immigrants, including

• Senator Dave Cortese 

• Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan, who is a member of the Jewish Caucus and is the granddaughter of refugees who came to the United States to escape the Holocaust

We had legislators in attendance who understand the farmworker and migrant worker experience first hand, such as:

• Latino Caucus Member Assembly Speaker Designee Robert Rivas, who grew up in farmworker housing and watched his grandfather stand side by side with Cesar Chavez and the UFW as a leader in the fight to win equal rights and fair contracts for farmworkers.

• Latino Caucus Member Senator María Elena Durazo, whose parents were migrant workers; one of 11 children, she traveled with her family, following the crops throughout California and Oregon.

• Latino Caucus Member Assemblymember Lisa Calderon, who was born and raised in California’s Central Valley where her parents and grandmother labored in fields, farms, and factories.