California’s caucus of openly gay state legislators will likely gain at least two new faces after November’s general election, given results in primary voting Tuesday night.  Community activist John Perez (right) won his primary to represent District 46 in the State Assembly and faces token opposition in November.  Perez would become the first openly gay person of color to serve in the Assembly.  Further north, San Francisco Supervisor Tom Ammiano took the Democratic nomination to fill the seat of Assemblymember Mark Leno, who was term limited.  Ammiano is the prohibitive favorite to win the seat this fall.

Leno, meanwhile, won a hard fought primary campaign for a seat in the California Senate and is heavily favored to win this November.  He first won a seat in the Assembly in 2002, where he fought for civil rights for the LGBT community.  In recent sessions, Leno lead an effort to legalize marriage for same-sex couples, twice passing a historic bill only to have it vetoed by California’s governor.

In Montana, Sen. Christine Kaufmann won her Democratic primary to keep her seat in the Montana Senate.  Kauffman was appointed to the seat in 2007 after serving in the Montana State House for six years.  She is favored to win the general election this fall.

The Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund backed Perez, Ammiano and Kaufmann.  It did not endorse Mark Leno because his race involved multiple openly gay candidates who were considered viable.

In other California races, Gary Haehnle won his race for a judgeship on the San Diego Superior Court and Dwayne Crenshaw won his primary for a seat on the San Diego Community College Board of Trustees.

The Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund is the only national organization dedicated to increasing the number of openly gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender elected officials at all levels of government.  Since its founding in 1991, the Victory Fund has helped to grow the number of openly LGBT elected officials in the U.S. from 49 to more than 410.

Gus Van Sant has enlisted San Francisco Supervisor Tom Ammiano to play himself in the upcoming film based on Harvey Milk’s life.
The Bay Area Reporter reports that Van Sant called Ammiano recently to offer him the part, a move Ammiano calls “a very gracious gesture.”

Ammiano, who was friends with Milk during the 1970s, said he did not know what scenes he would appear in during the film. Back in 1975 Ammiano became the first gay public school teacher in San Francisco to come out.
That year, the Board of Education voted against including sexual orientation in the school district’s non-discrimination policies. One year later the board reversed its decision, and in 1977, Ammiano helped lead the successful campaign against the Briggs initiative, which would have prevented gays and lesbians from teaching in California’s public schools.
Ammiano speculated his role in the film likely has something to do with his working with Milk to defeat the anti-gay measure.
“When Briggs was around, I was a gay teacher and got to ask him some questions,” recalled Ammiano, who has yet to receive a copy of the script.
Titled Milk, the movie will star Bay Area resident Sean Penn as Milk and Josh Brolin as Dan White, the distraught former city supervisor who gunned down Milk and Mayor George Moscone inside their City Hall offices 30 years ago this November.

Ammiano is currently running for California’s State Assembly, with the help of the Victory Fund.
The film is set to begin shooting in San Francisco’s Castro District in two weeks.