Tom Ammiano

Tom Ammiano (born December 15, 1941), a Democrat, is a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors representing District 9, including parts of the Mission District, Bernal Heights and Portola neighborhoods.

In 2008, he is a candidate for the California State Assembly from the 13th district, for which he received the nomination of the Democratic Party in the June 3rd primary.

Personal life
Ammiano was in a 16-year domestic partnership with a fellow schoolteacher, Tim Curbo, who died of complications from AIDS in 1994. He has one daughter and is now a grandfather.

San Francisco Board of Education
In 1980 and 1988, Ammiano ran for the San Francisco Board of Education, and was elected in 1990. He was subsequently elected its vice-president in 1991, and then president in 1992.

As president of the Board of Education, Ammiano was successful in his efforts to include a gay and lesbian sensitivity curriculum for all students in the San Francisco Unified School District. He helped to make San Francisco public schools' sexual education curriculum, which begins diversity and sensitivity training in kindergarten, one of the most diverse and inclusive in the United States.

San Francisco Supervisor
Among his accomplishments on the Board of Supervisors is the creation of the San Francisco Health Care Security Ordinance, which was passed by a unanimous vote of the Board of Supervisors and signed by Mayor Gavin Newsom on August 7, 2006. This makes San Francisco the first city in the nation to provide universal healthcare access. Ammiano is also the main architect of the city's Domestic Partners Ordinance, which provides equal benefits to employees and their unmarried domestic partners. It also requires companies that do business with the City and County of San Francisco to provide the same benefits. Ammiano was the first Supervisor ever to participate in Bike to Work Day.

1999 mayoral campaign
In the San Francisco mayoral race of 1999, Ammiano mounted a successful write-in campaign in the November election, preventing the incumbent Willie Brown from achieving a victory without a run-off. While he lost that second election in December, Ammiano's campaign galvanized progressive voters in San Francisco and had a major impact on the composition of the new, more liberal Board of Supervisors the next year. Ammiano ran for mayor again in 2003, but did not win enough votes to make that run-off after Superversior Matt Gonzalez entered the race, taking progressive voters from him.

Controversy
In 1999, Ammiano came into conflict with some in San Francisco's Catholic community when the Board of Supervisors, at Ammiano's request, granted the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a charity group of drag queen nuns, a street-closure permit for Castro Street for their 20th anniversary celebration on Easter Sunday. Some believe the controversy, which was repeatedly brought up by Ammiano's Catholic detractors, may have hurt his 1999 mayoral bid among San Francisco Catholics.