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."
Karen Shepherd
Returning to the U.S and resettling in Utah, the Shepherds had two children, Heather and Dylan. Vincent owned and operated a wholesale oil distributing company and Karen taught Freshman English at Brigham Young University. Shepherd became politically active with the Democratic Party, working for the Senate campaigns of both Wayne Owens and Frank Moss. Shepherd was the first woman ever to serve at cabinet level in Salt Lake County Government when she became Director of Social Services. In 1978, she became co-owner of "Network Magazine", which focused on women's workplace issues, and she soon founded a publishing business, Webster Publishing. In 1988 she sold the business and the magazine and became the Director of Development at the University of Utah's School of Business. In 1990 Shepherd was elected to the Utah State Senate, taking the place of Frances Farley, who had been at that time the only woman serving in the Utah Senate. She served in the Utah Legislature two years before announcing that she would run to succeed the four-term Democratic incumbent, U.S. Representative Wayne Owens for his seat, after he announced he would not seek re-election but would, instead, run for the U.S. Senate.