By Karen Ocamb

No exit poll of LGBT voters was taken during this June's run-off mayoral election. But gauging from the rock-star reception at the Aug. 11 "Meet the Mayor" event for LGBT leaders at Walt Disney Hall, Antonio Villaraigosa is considered not just a pro-gay elected official and an "honorary gay man," but a beacon of hope in an otherwise bleak political landscape.

More than 250 people collectively effervesced upon Villaraigosa's arrival and in a personalized manner similar to the attentive charm of former President Bill Clinton, the new mayor did his best to talk with each person who approached him. One sign of affection was the ease with which participants called the honorable mayor "Antonio," the one-name status usually reserved for rock icons such as Cher, Madonna, and Elvis.

Several LGBT leaders introduced him, including Shelly Freeman, regional president of Wells Fargo/Los Angeles (Wells Fargo sponsored the event) whom Villaraigosa appointed to the L.A. Police Commission. Freeman was unanimously confirmed by the L.A. City Council on Aug. 17.

Villaraigosa was clearly moved. "I want to say thank you for the support you've given me, not just in this election but in the council election, the first mayor's race [in 2001, his LGBT vote was over 72 percent], in my first race for the state Assembly," the mayor said. "This is a community that's been there for me at every stage."

Villaraigosa specifically thanked Assemblymember Jackie Goldberg. When he was a grassroots protest leader thinking about running for political office in 1989, he conferred with Goldberg, a well known civil rights activist and L.A. Unified School District board member. Goldberg told him it was a good idea but to "wait until next time and she'd be there -- she was and we've been together ever since," he said.

In that 1994 Assembly race, Villaraigosa faced a gay candidate. Though he sprung from the civil rights movement and work on poverty and social justice issues, he had not worked on issues relating to the environment or the gay and lesbian community. "But I said, ÔI've got good instincts and I know what's right and what's wrong and I'll fight for you.' And when I first got there, I had a great committee that dealt with all the funding for AIDS and HIV and I was the spearhead in the state Assembly back then on all of those issues," Villaraigosa said to much applause.

When Villaraigosa left the Assembly, he anointed Goldberg as his replacement and the "best representative" for the 45th District. He met some initial resistance since "it had been a civil rights-created seat and I was the first Latino. Some believed the next person should be Latino." But, Villaraigosa argued, the seat should go to a progressive who could unify and represent the district well. "I couldn't have been prouder of the years she's had in the legislature," he said.

Villaraigosa recalled his legislative partnerships with openly gay legislative pioneers, Sheila James Kuehl and Carole Midgen, on bills to protect LGBT students and domestic partners. And how, after a 10-year struggle, he led the successful battle for a statewide gay rights bill that prohibited discrimination based on sexual orientation in housing, employment, and public accommodations.

"It just made common sense," Villaraigosa said, "that we should address the last frontier of civil rights, and that is the open discrimination against gays and lesbians in this country and the LGBT community."

Villaraigosa, who has long supported marriage equality, said he was "very proud" that the City Council passed a resolution in favor of gay marriage. "The moment it was handed to me, before it could even sit on the desk, I signed it." The crowd erupted into sustained applause.

The new mayor outlined his plans for the community, including the appointment of Freeman to the police commission and the hiring of Nancy Sutley as deputy mayor for energy and the environment, adding that he's "not finished hiring yet." He also intends to establish an LGBT Community Advisory Task Force that will report directly to him and will craft an agenda by which progress can be marked. One effort will be working with AIDS Coordinator Stephen Simon to develop a new focus on HIV prevention to reduce new cases in the coming decade.

Villaraigosa also said he wants to tackle the issue of drug misuse and abuse and work with community-based organizations to create recovery programs based on "Best Practices" of what is already working. He also wants to address the issues of runaway gay youth, civil rights and the LAPD ("Nobody's above the law. Not a priest, not a politician, not a police officer," he said), more affordable housing, and student safety, singling out for praise Project 10 founder Virginia Uribe.

"None of this will be done overnight," Villaraigosa cautioned. But he hopes L.A. will be the city where others flock to learn "because this will be where the best programs will be."

Villaraigosa put his notes aside. "This is a community that has taken me in as one of their own," he said. "Make no mistake, I'm here today because this community came out for me in a wonderful and joyful way"

When San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom "demonstrated a courage and a foresight -- because what he did America will do one day, of course we're going to push her along the way," Villaraigosa said, "he created a maelstrom where Democrats were saying that Democrats lost because of the issue of gay marriage. I was the national co-chair for the John Kerry campaign -- there was nobody that crisscrossed the country in the way that I did and I can tell you we did not lose because of gay marriage. We lost because we failed to define who we were, and because we failed to adequately speak to the hearts and minds of the American people ... So you'll see me use my bully pulpit from time to time -- on behalf of this community on issues that are popular and unpopular, if I believe it's the right thing to do."