Sheila Kuehl
Kuehl was elected to the California State Assembly in 1994, becoming the first openly gay person elected to the California legislature. While running for office Kuehl found she was able to offset some negative stereotypes people had about lesbians thanks to their familiarity with her role as Zelda. She told an interviewer "When people know gay people personally, they tend to feel differently about the whole community. And all of a sudden, here's a person that they knew very well that they found out was lesbian."
Sheila Kuehl
In office Kuehl became a founding member of the California Legislative LGBT Caucus. She recalled "My Democratic colleagues were enormously welcoming. I mean it was more than I could have expected. I walked into my first Democratic caucus and Antonio Villaraigosa, Kevin Murray, Barbara Friedman, John Burton and probably three or four other folks came up to me and said, 'We don't want you to have to eat lunch by yourself so we are the honorary Gay and Lesbian Caucus.' It was lovely."