Same-sex and interracial marriages are now federally protected. Earlier this week, President Joe Biden signed off on the landmark legislation called The Respect for Marriage Act.
This issue became a priority for Americans after the Supreme Court voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, which ended the constitutional right to abortion.
The issue of same-sex and interracial marriage was next on a list of rights that justices wanted to reexamine.
Almost two decades ago, then California state senator Sheila Kuehl co-authored a bill that legalized same-sex marriages under state law. The legislation defined marriage as a civil contract between two persons.
This was the first time a state legislature voted to approve same-sex marriage, rather than respond to a court order to do so.
Kuehl not only made history signing that bill, in 2014, she then became the first openly gay LA County supervisor.
She served two terms before retiring earlier this month. The former supervisor joined “Inside the Issues” host Alex Cohen to discuss the next chapter in her life.
“I’ve been doing whatever I like,” said Kuehl about her new-found freedom. After serving in the political realm for decades, she said she’s excited to do things she otherwise may not have had time for, like, “I can go find things that I need to fix around my house and go to Ace Hardware.”
The former supervisor said she feels like she’s back in her twenties again.
“Where you just decided what to do and did it,” she said.
In speaking with Cohen, Kuehl also reflected on recent events that happened to her right before leaving her post as supervisor.
Back in early September, LA County sheriff’s deputies searched Kuehl’s house as part of a criminal investigation into a county contract the Board of Supervisors awarded to a nonprofit organization called Peace Over Violence.
That organization is run by a member of the Sheriff Civilian Oversight Commission, who’s also a friend of Kuehl’s.
“Alex made several big mistakes that day,” Kuehl said, referring to then LA County Sheriff Alex Villanueva.
During the search of her home, Kuehl marched straight to the press, who were standing opposite her home.
She said it was important for her to tell her story and for the press to understand that “This man is off the rails.”
The former supervisor claimed the search had nothing to do with the award given to a nonprofit, but his dislike of her politics and opinions of him after having called for his resignation.
“LA County is so fortunate not to have him as sheriff anymore,” Kuehl said.
Former Long Beach police chief Robert Luna was sworn in as the new LA County Sheriff at the beginning of this month.
While questions of misconduct over the county’s contract with Peace Over Violence have been shut down, Kuehl said, thinking of the incident still makes her upset.
“If you were monitoring my heart rate. You would know that every time it’s mentioned, it just about doubles,” she said.
But even her feelings for the former LA County Sheriff can’t keep her from celebrating the momentous signing of The Respect for Marriage Act.
“I was extremely happy to see that Congress could actually get it together in a somewhat bipartisan way,” she said.
Kuehl recalled a similar moment during former President Barack Obama’s administration when then members of the Supreme Court held that the right to marry is fundamentally guaranteed to same-sex couples.
While it’s once again guaranteed, President Biden’s signing of the legislation was “tainted” Kuehl said because Congress had to act to protect this because the current Supreme Court was heavily considering removing these protections.
“The courts are no longer,” Kuehl stated.
She’s paraphrasing the sentiment from a book by David Kaplan called “The Most Dangerous Branch: Inside the Supreme Court in the Age of Trump” in which he focuses on how the justices have undermined other branches of government.
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