Instruct: Given a question, retrieve passages that answer the question.
Query: When did Sheila James Kuehl get into politics?
Kuehl was elected to the California State Assembly in 1994, becoming the first openly gay person elected to the California legislature. While running for office Kuehl found she was able to offset some negative stereotypes people had about lesbians thanks to their familiarity with her role as Zelda. She told an interviewer "When people know gay people personally, they tend to feel differently about the whole community. And all of a sudden, here's a person that they knew very well that they found out was lesbian."[11]
Having signed a contract in 1960 to do 21 shows for the next season of Dobie, that same year Kuehl was elected an officer in both the University student government and in her sorority.[5] Despite this success, things became difficult that summer when love-letters to Kathy that she had accidentally left at the sorority house were found by the cleaning staff and turned over to the alumnae council of the sorority. When she returned from summer vacation the council (while speaking in coded language and carefully avoiding the word "lesbian") confronted Kuehl with the letters demanding an explanation. Kuehl later recalled that at first she tried to deny it and failing that "I then just clammed up and took my sorority pin off and put it on the table and left. I cried all the way home."[5] She was officially expelled from the sorority[2] and despite assurance that no one would be told why she was aware that rumours were spreading. Some of the members of the sorority refused to speak to her afterwards and avoided her. Kuehl moved back in with her parents under the cover story that she was homesick but was still a member of the sorority which they knew she loved being a part of. Whenever her parents knew of a sorority meeting taking place, to prevent discovery, Kuehl would go to a coffee shop during that time and return with a story about the events of the meeting that she had not attended.[5]
In June 2013, Butler quipped "Sheila did time on "Prisoner" so I say what Sheila wants she should get." Jaci Stephen from the "Daily Mail" branded Sheila a "nosey old busybody". Melissa Field from "TV Week" enjoyed Sheila ripping into Alan when she learned his secret, but quipped "unlucky-in-love Sheila can't get a break." During his end-of-year review, Daniel Kilkelly (Digital Spy) praised Mann as being one of the better additions to the cast and observed that Sheila "has lightened up the Street with wit, warmth and some memorable one-liners." When Sheila met Russell, Claire Crick of "All About Soap" commented "look out for Sheila in full flirtation mode when she gets to know the new arrival...these two are about to hit it off – big time." Jonathan Hughes of the "Radio Times" branded Sheila "Ramsay Street's resident battleaxe" and a "gobby granny".
Due to her talent exhibited on radio, Kuehl's agent convinced her parents to bring her to auditions for a television role. Kuehl later recalled "The same 200 kids I think were there for the interview [as had been for the radio audition] and I was called back and called back and called back and eventually I got that part. And beginning in 1950, I did that series for six years."[4] Kuehl was signed to play Jackie, Stuart Erwin's tomboy daughter, in the television series The Stu Erwin Show (also known as Trouble with Father) from 1950 to 1955.
After leaving the acting profession in the early 1970s, Kuehl became an adviser to students in campus activist groups at her alma mater, UCLA, and eventually became an associate dean of students.[3] When Kuehl was passed over for a promotion that was given to a man, Kuehl felt that her treatment had been unfair and became interested in a legal career to address the position of women in the workplace.[3]
A 2016 documentary film, "Political Animals", by Jonah Markowitz features the accomplishments of California legislators Carole Migden, Sheila Kuehl, Jackie Goldberg, and Christine Kehoe.
Opportunities for acting work steadily diminished and Kuehl was forced to sell her Malibu house.[3] She later recalled this period saying "I couldn't even get a commercial."[5] Due to worries about her career and being closeted she fell into a serious depression and developed a drinking problem.[5] She was able to move forward after seeking help. She then moved in with her then-girlfriend, Kathy, and began working at the UCLA student activities office helping students organize around the rising political movements of the 1960s.
After the third season of "Dobie Gillis", Rod Amateau and Max Shulman produced a pilot for a "Zelda" spinoff starring Sheila James as Zelda Gilroy, with Joe Flynn and Jean Byron cast as her parents. However, CBS president James Aubrey lingered over moving forward with the "Zelda" series for a long time before firmly rejecting the series, with Amateau telling James in private that Aubrey had found "Zelda" (and by extension James, then a closeted lesbian) "too butch". James' contract for the pilot and the resulting waiting period caused her to be absent from much of the fourth and final season of "Dobie Gillis", though Amateau was able to hire her to return as Zelda for four episodes towards the end of the season. Acting roles became sparse for James by the late 1960s; she went into law and politics under her birth name of Sheila Kuehl and later became the first openly gay person elected to the California State Legislature.
One of the first acts Kuehl did while in the Assembly was to introduce a bill (The Dignity for All Students Act - AB 222) to protect public school students from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. The bill was supported by most of her fellow Democrats whom Kuehl later recalled were brought "into a space where they were in a civil rights movement where they had never been at their age and they were feeling it and felt good about themselves when they would stand up and support me."[4] The debate was cited by the media, such as the LA Times, for its moving speeches, most notably Assemblyman Tom Torlakson's support of the bill which included a here-to unknown revelation that his brother had been bisexual and died of AIDS.[12] The bill failed to pass the Assembly by one vote (it was opposed by 37 lawmakers, including seven Democrats). Supporters of the bill blamed "a state-wide public relations campaign by anti-gay groups aimed at moderate Democrats" which "featured mailers, newspaper ads and protests largely targeted at Latino lawmakers."[12] Kuehl's opponents also held that the "proposal would open the door to a sweeping gay agenda in public schools."[12] Republican Assemblyman Bruce Thompson claimed the bill wasn't about "civil rights, but it's about special rights [for homosexuals]", and it's "the issue that will divide this state and country more than any other."[12]
While working in private practice in Los Angeles Kuehl began fund-raising for the Sojourn Center for Battered Women (which she eventually served as Chair). Staff from other shelters soon began asking Kuehl for legal advice and training in domestic-violence law. Kuehl later recalled this time saying "I had to learn what there was, which wasn't much."[11] She then joined a handful of other lawyers in trying to assist in crafting legislation on the issue which included a bill that required judges in custody cases to consider evidence of domestic violence.[11]
In 2006, Kuehl sponsored a bill to prohibit the adoption by any school district in California of any instructional material that discriminates against persons based on their gender or sexual orientation.[18]
At age seven Kuehl's parents noticed that she loved to try to play piano and sing though she lacked any training. Kuehl's parents agreed to pay for lessons when a door-to-door salesmen came to their home selling Saturday classes for tap-dancing, ballet, and singing lessons at Meglin Studios. Her parents would accompany her by bus for tap-dancing lessons at the studio every Saturday. As the tap instructor's wife taught drama classes for an additional 50 cents, Kuehl's parents signed her up for those as well. The classes would have recitals on Monday nights to showcase what they had learned.
Reflecting on her political career Kuehl told an interviewer, "I was very proud of the fact that I wasn't too frightened to run for office as a gay person. [You imagine] people making anonymous phone calls in the middle of the night to tell you you're a horrible person only in worse language than that, or imagine getting spat at. It's the same thing people go through about coming out. But it turns out to be much better than you expect."[4]
After Dobie Gillis ended its run, Kuehl (as "Sheila James") co-starred with Kathleen Nolan, formerly of The Real McCoys, in the short-lived ABC television series Broadside, a female version of McHale's Navy, in its 1964-65 season.
Having landed the role at the age of eight Kuehl (billed as Sheila James) starred with radio and film veterans Penny Singleton, Gale Gordon, Bea Benaderet, and Jim Backus on the family radio program The Penny Williamson Show airing live from Studio B of the NBC studios in Hollywood.[4][5] Airing in the adjacent studios was the popular drama The Cisco Kid and The Bob Hope Show with Doris Day (whom Kuehl admired). Kuehl would later cite her interaction with the other NBC radio talent as influential in forming her professionalism and comedy skills.[5] The show centred around Singleton playing Penny Williamson a widow selling real estate in a small town to support two daughters (played by Kuehl and Mary Lee Robb). The show was "a light-hearted pitch for women's liberation, portraying Penny and her daughters as highly competent, self-sufficient females" dealing with bungling suitors competing for Penny's affections.[6]
Signing a contract with Dobie producer 20th Century Fox Television required Kuehl, then 18 and in college studying theater, to change her major to English, so that Shulman, also a successful author, could act as her proctor on set in order to allow her to continue her studies.[8] Kuehl earned a bachelor's degree in English from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1962, during the show's final season.[9]
In the 1980s Kuehl became an adjunct law professor at the University of Southern California, and later an associate professor at Loyola Law School where she taught courses on family law, sex discrimination, and education.[3]
In 2009, Kuehl became a member of the California Integrated Waste Management Board. In 2010, she started Kuehl Consulting and served on the board as a member of the Public Policy Institute at Santa Monica College.
While in the Assembly Kuehl served as Speaker pro tempore during the 1997–98 legislative session, becoming the first woman in California history to hold the position. Kuehl served three full terms (six years) in the California Assembly which was the maximum allowed under term limits that had been adopted in 1990.
Kuehl's only acting roles beyond 1970 were in two Dobie Gillis reunion projects: a 1977 sitcom pilot produced by James Komack, Whatever Happened to Dobie Gillis?, and a 1988 television movie sequel, Bring Me the Head of Dobie Gillis. In both productions, Dobie had married Zelda and the two were running the Gillis family grocery store and raising a teenage son named Georgie Gillis.
At one recital Kuehl played an assistant in a skit called "The Old Sleuth" where she sat under a table listening for clues. To indicate she was listening Kuehl made faces which caused the audience to laugh and encouraged her to make more faces resulting in more laughter. The skit was ruined but the drama teacher, Mrs. Meglin was impressed. Kuehl later recalled that Meglin told her mother "'The kid's pretty funny. Can she read?' And my mother said, 'Oh, yeah, she can read, she skipped two grades, she's really very good.' Mrs. Meglin said, 'There's a radio series holding interviews…at an agent's office on Sunset Boulevard. Would you be interested in taking her to the interview? All she has to do is read…' So we went for the interview and there were like 150 or 200 kids there and all you did was read. And I was called back…and eventually I got the part in what probably was the last family radio series before it went all music and news...'"[4]
Since 2010, Kuehl has hosted "Get Used To It", a national cable show on LGBT issues, filmed in West Hollywood.
Kuehl previously had a ten-year romantic relationship with Torie Osborn, who served as a deputy mayor in L.A.[4] Osborn went on to support Kuehl's run for Supervisor and joined her staff as principal deputy for strategy and policy.[22]
When Kuehl was elected as a Democrat to the California Assembly in 1994 a Republican majority was seated for the first time in 20 years. This was due largely as an out-flowing of the enthusiasm stoked up by Newt Gingrich's strategy supporting Republicans for the Federal Legislature. Kuehl recalled "The Republican majority was quite a different kind of Republican, not a moderate, not a Rockefeller Republican. They were primarily Bible-thumpers and very right-wing. So it was not the most welcoming Republican group, though they loved Zelda Gilroy, and it was very difficult for them because they already liked me so much…. And to their surprise, we all got along very well. ...The Republicans were pretty horrible about LGBT stuff. They all virtually said stuff like, 'Well, they're all spawn of the devil, oh, but not you, Sheila….'"[4]
Sheila James Kuehl (born February 9, 1941) is an American politician, former child actor, and currently the member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors for the 3rd District. In 1994, she became the first openly gay California legislator. Two years later, George magazine named her one of the 20 most fascinating women in politics and the California Journal selected her as "Rookie of the Year." The following year, she became the first woman in California history to be named Speaker pro tempore of the California State Assembly.[2] In 1998 and 2000, the California Journal chose her as the Assembly member with the greatest intelligence and the most integrity. During this time, she was twice selected to speak about family violence and diversity at the Democratic National Conventions. After serving six years in the State Assembly, Kuehl was elected to the California State Senate. Between 2000 and 2008, she authored 171 bills that were signed into law by three different governors, including legislation to formally incorporate the rights declared in Roe v. Wade into California state law. In 2006, the Capitol Weekly selected her as the most intelligent member of the California Legislature. The story of her role as the first lesbian in the state legislature, along with three other pioneering lesbian legislators, is told in the documentary, Political Animals.