gay-sd.com MOMENTS IN TIME
Lambda Archives of San Diego
—with— Our ‘best’ long-shot
San Diego’s first openly gay candidate risked life and livelihood
By Pat Sherman | Contributing Writer On April 12, 1979 a mild-man-
nered San Diego businessman and former high-ranking aviation official named Al Best announced his intention to run for the District 2 San Diego City Council seat being vacated by future mayor Maureen O’Connor—be- coming the city’s first openly gay person to run for elected office. Urged by a handful of LGBT leaders and business owners to toss his hat into the ring, Best’s articulate and professional image was just what the community was looking for in a candidate— someone whose demeanor would counter pervasive, negative ste- reotypes about gays and lesbians. Best, who announced his candidacy just months after the assassination of San Fran- cisco Supervisor Harvey Milk, weighed the decision carefully. As an openly gay candidate, he knew he would be a long-shot in the race.
“I had a lover at the time and
I wanted to talk to him because I realized that I would be putting his life on the line, as well as mine,” said Best, interviewed re- cently at the Linda Vista home he shares with his legally married partner, Eduardo Mendoza. “I finally decided, well, if they think there’s something I can do, then I’m willing to do it. I’d been on the state aviation board in New Mexico. I had been a consultant to three of the governors in New Mexico, so I was not without some political savvy.” Best ran on a platform that
included rent control, crime reduction and relocating San Di- ego’s Lindbergh Field airport to Miramar—a popular sentiment in the months following the deadly PSA 182 crash of Sept. 25, 1978. Best didn’t make his sexual
orientation a priority, but he didn’t hide it either. In the last entry of a four-page
campaign brochure, Best wrote, “The election of a gay person will mean the last, most durable barrier of prejudice is broken. Young people everywhere will see clearly that the system does work, and that the electoral process is open to everyone who wants to get involved and make some changes.” Though reporters eagerly filed stories about the “avowed homosexual” who had entered the race, most were just as quick to note Best’s articulate speech and easygoing manner. However, Best was no shrink- ing violet. He was urged to run for public office based on his outspoken efforts to combat pervasive police harassment at bathhouses, bars and other gay- owned establishments, helping to form the now defunct Gay
This photo of Al Best was used to promote his 1979 San Diego City Council candidacy. Though he raised far less money than some of his opponents, Best came in fifth place out of a field of 11 candidates. (Al Best personal collection)
Alliance for Equal Rights. In a July 1979 interview with
see Moments, pg 7s
NEWS April 12, 1979
On the Radio: The Bee Gees’ “Tragedy;” Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive”
In the Oval Office: Jimmy Carter and Walter Mon- dale
Tragedies we survived: Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 182 collides with a Cessna 172, going down in a North Park neighborhood and killing 144 people (Sept. 25, 1978); openly gay San Francisco Supervi- sor Harvey Milk is assassinated (Nov. 27, 1978); 16-year-old Brenda “I Don’t Like Mondays” Spencer fires 30 rounds from a semi-automatic rifle, killing two and injuring nine outside San Diego’s Cleveland Elementary School (Jan. 29, 1979); Three Mile Island nuclear meltdown (April 1, 1979)
Jan. 28-Feb. 10, 2011
GAY SAN DIEGO
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