Марк Лено: Калифорниялық саяхатшының өмірбаяны мен саяси мансабы

American politician

Mark Leno (born September 24, 1951) is an American politician who served in the California State Senate until November 2016. A Democrat, he represented the 11th Senate district, which includes San Francisco and portions of San Mateo County. Before the 2010 redistricting, he represented the 3rd Senate district. A member of the California Legislative LGBT Caucus, Leno was the first openly gay man elected to the State Senate. He was previously one of the first two openly gay men (along with John Laird) to serve in the California State Assembly. Before being elected to the State Senate in 2008, Leno served in the California State Assembly, representing the 13th Assembly District. Before his time in the Legislature, he served as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors between 1998 and 2002. Leno is the owner of Budget Signs Inc., a small business, and was a candidate in the San Francisco mayoral special election, which was held June 5, 2018.

Leno is the grandson of Russian Jewish immigrants. A native of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, he attended Nicolet High School and later the University of Colorado at Boulder. He was valedictorian of his graduating class at the American College in Jerusalem, where he earned his Bachelor of Arts degree. Leno also spent two years in rabbinical studies at Hebrew Union College in New York. Afterward, he moved to San Francisco on the invitation of his sister. He lived his first four years in the Tenderloin before moving to the Noe Valley neighborhood. In 1978, Leno started Budget Signs as owner and operator. The business incorporated in 1982. Working with his life partner, Douglas Jackson, the business continued to grow and their involvement in community affairs steadily expanded. Jackson died from complications related to AIDS in 1990.

Prior to his election, his political background included raising money for candidates and causes such as AIDS services, the San Francisco LGBT Community Center, the U. S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, and the Democratic Party. He authored legislation to ban mercury thermometers, one of the first such proposals in the country. In 2000, as a supervisor, he supported Proposition L, the slow growth measure and authored legislation to protect neighborhood business districts from big box retail. He was a statewide spokesman for the No on Proposition 22 campaign. In 2001, Leno successfully introduced an ordinance providing equal access to the city's health plan for transgender employees of San Francisco.

Leno was elected to the California State Assembly in 2002 and was re elected in 2004 and 2006. He was the chair of the Assembly's Appropriations Committee, as well as the Select Committee on Childhood Obesity & Related Diabetes. In 2005, Leno authored AB 849, a bill legalizing same sex marriages that became the first bill of its kind to pass a legislative body in the United States. The bill passed both the Assembly and the State Senate He authored California Assembly Bill Number AB 1668, on February 23, 2007 — a bill encouraging Open Document Formats ODF in California. In Leno's first two terms in the Assembly, 58 of his bills were signed into law. He co authored AB 32 to cap greenhouse emissions. He authored AB 706 to prohibit the use of fire retardants in upholstered furniture. He authored AB 2573 to allow San Francisco public utilities to install solar panels on public infrastructure. He also authored Assembly Bill 1358, the California Complete Streets Act, to require cities and counties to consider including walking and bicycling in their general plans. He coauthored the AB 583, California Clean Money and Fair Elections Act, to bring public financing to political campaigns.