LGBTQ Breaking News Service

California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara, the first LGBTQ person to win election to statewide office in the Golden State, officially declared Friday his intention to seek a second four-year term in 2022. The gay former state lawmaker from Los Angeles has faced a bumpy first term with self-imposed gaffes and continues to be a lightning rod for criticism from various groups.

But he also has seemed to grow into his role since being sworn into office in January 2019, when he was hailed as “our own Latino Harvey Milk” by former state lawmaker Art Torres, who came out of the closet in 2009 after leading the California Democratic Party as its longtime chair. Torres, who lost his own bid to become state insurance commissioner in 1994, was referring to the late gay San Francisco supervisor who was the first out person elected to public office in California in 1977.

At least two statewide races in 2022 will feature out candidates, as lesbian Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert announced Monday she is running against Attorney General Rob Bonta, who was sworn in as the state’s top prosecutor April 23. While Bonta is a former Democratic state Assembly member from Oakland, Schubert is an independent having left the Republican Party in 2018.

Lara, so far, is the only person to file an intent to run for the insurance commissioner post next year, according to the secretary of state’s online database. While it is unlikely he will face a challenge from a prominent fellow Democrat, Lara is likely to see a Republican jump into the race with backing from various business groups and other critics of his.

“I’m seeking reelection because this fight is far from over,” Lara wrote in an April 30 email to supporters. “I’m on your side as we continue to implement solutions to the climate crisis, expand health care to every Californian, and address the inequities we see across our state.”

Lara was front and center during last year’s devastating wildfire season, issuing a one-year moratorium on insurers leaving fire-prone areas last November. According to his office the directive helped at least 2.1 million policyholders, or 18% of California’s residential insurance market.

And last year he worked with state Senator Lena Gonzalez (D-Long Beach) to adopt Senate Bill 1255, ending the practice of insurance companies discriminating against individuals because of their HIV status. This year he is working with gay state Senator John Laird (D- Santa Cruz) to pass SB 272, which will update “archaic gender-specific pronouns” used in various state codes, such as those related to insurance.

And he is also working with Assemblyman Miguel Santiago (D-Los Angeles) to see that California becomes the first state in the country to allow adult children to add their parents as dependents to their health insurance plans. Opposed by some business groups, Assembly Bill 570, dubbed the Parent Healthcare Act, is seen as a way for low-income people living in the country illegally who aren’t eligible for government-funded coverage to obtain insurance.

“My parents came to this country from Mexico propelled by a dream without documents, determined to create a better life. Now, as your insurance commissioner, I’m determined to keep fighting to make a better life for nearly 40 million Californians,” wrote Lara in his campaign launch email.

Already a subject of negative ads
The headlines Lara has generated of late over insurance policy matters is a decided charge from his first months into his tenure. Two years ago the San Diego Union-Tribune raised questions about Lara’s meeting with a major insurance executive with business before his department, a possible violation of state law, and intervening in cases affecting a donor.

It also reported on Lara accepting donations from the insurance industry, something he had ruled out doing when he sought the statewide post in 2018. In response, Lara told the Union-Tribune he would hire a treasurer for his reelection campaign and return the money. California’s insurance commissioner oversees the largest insurance market in the country, with $310 billion in annual policies.

According to filings with the secretary of state, Lara raised just $36,200 in 2020 toward his campaign coffers, ending the year with close to $21,000 in cash on hand. He has yet to file a comprehensive fundraising report for 2021 but has already raised $125,000 from various interests and political action committees, such as the LGBTQ Latino focused HONOR PAC and the LGBT Caucus Leadership Fund.

He is already the subject of negative ads. The American Property Casualty Insurance Association, for instance, has been placing ads critical of Lara in the weekday emails sent out by the Politico California Playbook. It accuses Lara of “pushing costly proposals that put group car insurance discounts in jeopardy.”

Lara counters that he has saved consumers more than $1.75 billion dollars in his first two years in office and has put their interests first over those of insurance companies.

“I’ve fought to defend fire survivors when the industry tried to flee from their commitments – protecting more than 2 million policyholders from nonrenewal following disaster. And I’ve continued to strengthen our clinics and public health system, fighting to lower costs for all — while still pushing for the creation of a single-payer health care system that covers every Californian,” Lara wrote in his campaign announcement email. “I’m committed to holding the insurance industry accountable to consumers because amid crisis, this work has never been more important.”

To learn more about Lara’s reelection bid, visit his campaign site at https://ricardolara.com/

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Two students and a faculty member in YSU’s Doctor of Physical Therapy program received one of the top awards at the World Physiotherapy Congress, a biennial conference that attracts delegates from more than 100 countries.

YSU students Ryan Morton and Jacob Rasey, and Weiqing Ge, YSU professor of Physical Therapy, received the World Physiotherapy Outstanding Platform Presentation Award at the conference’s opening ceremonies earlier this month. The conference was held online.

Out of nearly 1,900 abstracts submitted to the conference and 350 that were accepted for platform presentation, the YSU project was among only two selected for the Outstanding Platform Presentation Award. The other went to an Australian researcher.

The team won the award for research titled “Improving doctor of physical therapy programs in addressing lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer health in the United States.” The project emerged from Ge’s “Language, Culture, and Health” class as part of the YSU doctor of Physical Therapy curriculum.

Ge said Morton and Rasey conducted a national survey among programs to provide insights into improving educational programs in addressing cultural competence and LGBTQ health to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion in the profession.

World Physiotherapy is a global organization for 125 physical therapy member organizations, including the American Physical Therapy Association, representing more than 660,000 physical therapists worldwide. Every two years, World Physiotherapy holds a large international scientiKic congress, bringing the global community together.

YSU’s DPT program was well represented at the Congress, with three Platform presentations and four ePoster presentations, all with student involvement.

(Washington Blade file photo)

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser announced on April 26 that the city’s COVID-related public health restrictions are being eased one step further by the lifting of a ban on live entertainment at bars, restaurants and nightclubs beginning May 1.

The mayor’s revised public health order is expected to provide a boost to the city’s gay bars, which will be allowed on a limited basis to resume offering live entertainment, including drag shows, which club owners have said have been a longtime popular form of entertainment.

The new order also expands the maximum number of people allowed to be seated at a single table from six to 10 and lifts a requirement that customers must order at least one food item when seated outdoors. The order leaves in place a requirement that a food item must be served when customers are seated indoors.

While welcoming the limited easing of some restrictions, nightlife advocates expressed disappointment that the new mayoral order leaves in place a 25 percent capacity limit on the number of people allowed for indoor dining and bar service along with a required 6′ distancing between tables and seating areas. Also left in place in the new order is the requirement that all customers in bars and restaurants must be seated at all times.

In addition, the mayoral order leaves in place a ban on seating at or ordering drinks from a service bar if the bar is staffed by a bartender or another employee. It also leaves in place a requirement that bars, nightclubs, and restaurants close at midnight instead of the pre-pandemic closing times of 2 a.m. on weekdays and 3 a.m. on weekends.

Nightlife advocates point out that Maryland has raised its occupancy limit for bars and restaurants to 50 percent and Virginia no longer has a capacity limit, although it requires all patrons to be seated and requires tables to be spaced at a distance in observance of social distancing.

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam last week further eased the state’s restrictions on restaurants and bars by allowing bartenders to serve customers at indoor bar tops.

David Perruzza, owner of the Adams Morgan gay sports bar Pitchers and its adjoining lesbian bar League of Her Own said he too welcomes the lifting of the ban on live entertainment, which had been in place for about year. Perruzza said he would be offering the first drag show his bars has had in about a year on May 6.

But Perruzza said that like other D.C. gay bars, most of which operate in small or medium size buildings, the requirement that all customers must be seated and that tables must be separated by a distance of at least 6′ limits the number of customers that can enter his establishments, which include dining, even if the capacity limit were to be raised to 50 percent.

He said if a 50 percent capacity limit is put in place, the space in his two bars would only allow a 33 percent capacity due to the 6′ social distancing rule.

“What would help us is to let people sit at a bar,” Perruzza said. “My whole staff has been vaccinated. So why no bar service now?”

Mark Lee, coordinator of the D.C. Nightlife Council, a local trade association representing bars, nightclubs, restaurants and other entertainment businesses, has said the initial closing of all bars and restaurants early last year due to the COVID outbreak and the subsequent 25 percent indoor occupancy limit has had a devastating impact on many bars, restaurants and nightclubs.

Lee and other nightlife advocates point out that many of these venues are struggling to stay in business due to the dramatic loss of revenue brought about by the drop in the number of customers.

“The reality is that D.C. remains an outlier throughout the region and across the nation for the worst restaurant and bar restrictions,” said Lee, who is calling on Bowser to “move the same science-based and health-safe level of re-opening opportunities as in both neighboring and nationwide jurisdictions.”

Added Lee, “As all of the local area health metrics continue to improve and vaccination access is now readily available to all, our city needs to finally and immediately restore indoor capacity to 50 percent, allow seating of guest groups at bartender stations, and return to full operating hours by eliminating the midnight service curfew.”

Dr. LaQuanda Nesbitt, director of the D.C. Department of Health, has said nationwide data have shown that restaurants and bars have been among the high-risk places where the coronavirus is transmitted from person to person. But both Nesbitt and Bowser have said in recent weeks that city health officials are closely observing the declining number of new infections among D.C. residents and will be looking at further easing of the current restrictions within a month or two.

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A Democratic state House member announced on Wednesday that he’s running for Georgia insurance commissioner, aiming to defeat appointed Republican incumbent John King.

Rep. Matthew Wilson of Brookhaven said he will advocate for lower insurance rates and to fully expand the state-federal Medicaid health insurance program if elected.

The 37-year-old lawyer and Griffin native defeated a Republican incumbent to win election to the state House in 2018. Wilson was reelected in 2020 in a district covering parts of DeKalb and Fulton counties.

Wilson argues that a more aggressive regulator could reduce the cost of insurance in the state, particularly auto insurance. He argues that prior commissioners have too often been “doing the insurance companies’ bidding.

“The whole purpose of this role is to serve Georgia consumers,” Wilson said in a phone interview, arguing Republican commissioners have not challenged auto insurance increases.

If elected, Wilson would be the first openly gay statewide officer in Georgia history. His announcement video refers to that status, including pictures of Wilson and his fiance and Wilson walking on a rainbow crosswalk.

“I want people to know that about me because I want them to know about me,” Wilson said.

King was Doraville police chief when Gov. Brian Kemp appointed him in 2019 to succeed indicted commissioner Jim Beck. King is Georgia’s first Hispanic statewide officeholder. The former Army National Guard general touts cutting expenses, combating fraud and restoring trust in the department. King says he would work in the future to lower healthcare costs and insurance rates. He announced he would seek re-election earlier this month.

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Topics Georgia Politics