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 Simon
According to the Quinn/Simon campaign, the pairing of Gov. Quinn and Sheila Simon was appropriate, as the two worked together successfully in achieving the passage of campaign finance law, and have many shared goals and political viewpoints. Simon was sworn in on January 10, 2011.