Sheila Kuehl
When Kuehl was elected as a Democrat to the California Assembly in 1994 a Republican majority was seated for the first time in 20 years. This was due largely as an out-flowing of the enthusiasm stoked up by Newt Gingrich's strategy supporting Republicans for the Federal Legislature. Kuehl recalled "The Republican majority was quite a different kind of Republican, not a moderate, not a Rockefeller Republican. They were primarily Bible-thumpers and very right-wing. So it was not the most welcoming Republican group, though they loved Zelda Gilroy, and it was very difficult for them because they already liked me so much…. And to their surprise, we all got along very well. ...The Republicans were pretty horrible about LGBT stuff. They all virtually said stuff like, 'Well, they're all spawn of the devil, oh, but not you, Sheila….'"
Sheila Kohler
Sheila Kohler was born November 13, 1941 in Johannesburg and educated at St. Andrew's School for Girls where she matriculated in 1958 with a distinction in History. She then moved to Europe and spent 15 years in Paris where she married and completed an undergraduate degree in Literature at The Sorbonne (1973) and a graduate degree in Psychology from Institut Catholique (1976). She moved to the United States in 1981 and obtained an MFA from Columbia University (1984). From 1995 to 2000 she taught at The New School, and between 2000 and 2006 at Bennington College. She now teaches at Princeton University and Columbia, writes a blog for "Psychology Today" and lives in New York City, and Amagansett. She has three daughters, Sasha Troyen, Cybele and Brett Sasha Troyen has herself published two novels. She is married to Dr. William Tucker, a psychiatrist.