Roberta Achtenberg

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Roberta Achtenberg (born 1950) was the first openly lesbian or gay public official in the United States whose appointment to a federal position was confirmed by the United States Senate.

Achtenberg unsuccessfully ran for a seat in the California State Assembly in 1988 and was elected as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors before she was appointed Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in 1993 by President Bill Clinton. Her confirmation was famously held up by Senator Jesse Helms who refused to vote for 'that damned lesbian.' She left the post in 1995 to run for mayor of San Francisco. She served as Senior Vice President for Public Policy at the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce until January 2005. In 2000, she was appointed to the Board of Trustees of California State University by Governor Gray Davis, becoming chair of the Board in May 2006.

She has a son, Benjie, who she raised with her former partner, Mary C. Morgan.

[edit] Books

Sexual Orientation and the Law, by Roberta Achtenberg (editor) (1985) ISBN 0-87632-454-5
The Lesbian and Gay Book of Love and Marriage: Creating the Stories of Our Lives, by Paula Martinac, Roberta Achtenberg (contributor) (1998) ISBN 0-7679-0162-2
Helping Gay and Lesbian Youth: New Policies, New Programs, New Practice, by Teresa Decrescenzo (editor), Roberta Achtenberg (contributor) (1994) ISBN 1-56023-057-6