Sheila Kuehl blames everybody but Lindsey Horvath in email rant.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl finally paid attention to West Hollywood.

In an email sent to thousands of friends and allies, the retiring county supervisor representing West Hollywood proved herself to be short on the facts.

“They pushed it to the LA Times, I hear, and I’m going to try to set them straight,” Kuehl said. A somewhat despicable rag published in Lindsey’s hometown of West Hollywood is pushing a non-story about her not sufficiently touting her LGBTQ ally credentials in her campaign.  Sheila continued”Coincidentally, that same West Hollywood rag published an interview with Lindsey’s opponent in which he (astoundingly) tried to take credit for the passage of my gay student bill. So, he’s using this rag to try and burnish his (non-existent) LGBTQ credentials.

Kuehl’s topic of discussion? An article published by WEHOville describing how Lindsey Horvath’s campaign page was stripped of references to West Hollywood and the LGBTQIA+ community after she appeared to secure a spot in November’s runoff election against state Sen. Bob Hertzberg, a story uncovered by The Acorn.

In Kuehl’s email below she takes a pre-emptive strike at WEHOville and Robert Hertzberg and the LA Times for an article she has not seen or has yet to be published. The County Supervisor was trying to have the article squashed.

After pushback the author held the article and received additional ‘splaining’ from Kuehl. The article is now in the hands of the LA Times publisher and expected to run in the next few days.

Horvath received the endorsement of the LA Times after she appointed Nika Soon-Shiong, daughter of the owner of the Times, to the Public Safety Commission. Soon-Shiong led the initiative to reduce WeHo’s funding of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. Horvath was the originator of the De-Fund the Sheriff initiative in West Hollywood.

The Los Angeles Blade which touts itself as “Southern California’s LGBTQ news source” did not run the story about Horvath’s expulsion of the LGBTQ letters from her bio. The Blade is the recipient of advertising dollars from West Hollywood City Hall. During her time as mayor, Horvath moved to divert city dollars to preferred media sources excluding WEHOville from the mix. The City of West Hollywood has a media in-equity problem because the public information office is suppose to be fair and unbiased and equitable.

Sheila Keuhl was the first openly gay member of the California State Assembly. She has endorsed Horvath, a heterosexual white woman to replace her whereupon Lindsey Horvath stabbed the gay community in the back by removing all references to West Hollywood and the LGBT community from her bio. Kuehl’s email asks no questions to Lindsey Horvath and provides no answers to the slight.

Kuehl’s letter represents one of the few times she has paid any attention to West Hollywood’s residents or their needs. Since her election to the County Board of Supervisors in 2014, there were few times that Kuehl has engaged the community in West Hollywood. In the last eight years the County of Los Angeles has provided few solutions to the homeless issues or housing or transit needs our city faces.

Below is a copy of Kuehl’s email:

Well… inspired by Cassidy Hutchinson’s truth-telling and ever more disgusted by the tactics of Lindsey Horvath’s opponent running for my seat on the Board of Supervisors (I’ve enthusiastically endorsed Lindsey — the ONLY one qualified to carry on the work.), I just wanted to let my entire list know the truth about Lindsey, whom Supervisor Janice Hahn and Supervisor Hilda Solis have also endorsed.

A somewhat despicable rag published in Lindsey’s hometown of West Hollywood is pushing a non-story about her not sufficiently touting her LGBTQ ally credentials in her campaign. They also pushed it to the LA Times, I hear, and I’m going to try and set them straight (so to speak). But, with the press, you never know what they’ll quote, so I’m doing my own truth-telling communication.

Coincidentally, that same West Hollywood rag published an interview with Lindsey’s opponent in which he (astoundingly) tried to take credit for the passage of my gay student bill, one of the hallmarks of my time in Sacramento. But, of course, it’s made even more outrageous because Carole Migden, Chris Kehoe, Jackie Goldberg, and I worked five years to get that bill through (see an excellent documentary on this: Political Animals).

So, he’s using this rag to try and burnish his (non-existent) LGBTQ credentials. Here’s the truth: Lindsey Horvath has been one of the most stalwart allies of our community through her life and electoral service. Starting in college at Notre Dame, Lindsey helped create one of the first gay/straight alliances and plan a Queer Film Festival. As a result, she was invited as one of the few straight students to attend the National Conference on Gender in 2003 (sponsored by Gender Pac, which lobbied Congress on Transgender Rights). She served on the Board of the Victory Fund, which supports LGBTQ candidates nationally, was Vice President of Communications for Stonewall Dems, and was on the National Board of SAGE (Services and Advocacy for GLBT Elders). In West Hollywood, she created and wrote the policy to institute guidelines for supporting transitioning employees, adopted by the Chamber of Commerce and then-CA Attorney General Kamala Harris for her office. She received the Stonewall President’s Award in 2019 and has helped guide tens of millions of needed dollars to service providers in our community. In addition, she currently serves on LA County’s Ending HIV Epidemic Commission. Lindsey is an indisputable active and strong ally and has been for decades. She is endorsed not only by me but by Torie Osborn, Jackie Goldberg, Jeffrey Prang, Robert Garcia, David Vela, Judy Abdo, John D’Amico, John Erickson, Sepi Shyne, Steve Martin, Sasha Renee Perez, Bamby Salcedo, Jasmyne Cannick, Marquita Thomas, HONOR PAC, Stonewall Dems, and the Stonewall Young Dems (the rest of the list of LGBTQ+ supporters is way too long).

What’s her opponent done? Bupkis.

Please pay attention during this critical time for LA County and this country. We need Lindsey. I could do this same kind of email on her environmental credentials, civil rights credentials, extensive feminist movement credentials, and dealing with the Sheriff credentials (WeHo is a city that contracts with the Sheriff for law enforcement). We need Lindsey. We do not need her opponent, whose views and actions are so different in so many ways (check out his vociferous blasting and no vote on a bill to ban oil drilling and personal attacks on its author). Support Lindsey. Vote for Lindsey.Give Lindsey some money if you can to fend off this smear job. Don’t reward mendacity! Thanks for listening. I’m just a bit fed up with so much these days. — Sheila Kuehl