Mark Leno was born on September 24, 1951 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Mark grew up in a reform Jewish household; his social justice-oriented parents taught him about the history of anti-semitism in the US, and inspired his lifelong devotion for social justice. Mark started out his young adulthood in New York City, but upon simultaneously losing his job, apartment, and relationship, his sister invited him to join her in the Bay Area in 1977.

In San Francisco, between odd jobs and couchsurfing, Mark frequented the Castro and quickly immersed himself in the queer community. In 1978, he rented a small commercial space and started Budget Signs, a sign making business. Through that, Mark joined the Golden Gate Business Association, the first Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce in the country. He learned the nuts and bolts of small business ownership from the ground up, teaching himself the basics of advertising and operations along the way. In 1985, he was able to purchase a small commercial building for the operation of Budget Signs.

In May 1980, Douglas Jackson, working for a small public relations office, walked into Mark’s shop. The men quickly bonded and fell in love and stayed together until Douglas passed away from AIDS-related complications in 1990. As the AIDS epidemic entered full swing, Mark stepped up to volunteer. He became involved with Mobilization Against AIDS, the AIDS Foundation, and the Human Rights Campaign. Mark was a natural at fundraising, and he soon took the lead on raising funds for these organizations and others.

As Mark continued to expand his volunteer community services, candidate Willie Brown invited Mark to help with his mayoral campaign in 1995. As a result, Mark began working with more local politicians. At the time, he became the second openly gay person to join the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce Board. In 1998, Mayor Brown appointed Mark to the County Board of Supervisors. Mark was reelected in 2000. 

In 2002, Mark was among the first two openly gay men to be elected to the California State Assembly. Over the next 14 years, Mark advocated for LGBTQ+ and other human rights in the legislature, first as an assemblyman and later as a state senator. In 2003, Mark started advocating for an equal marriage rights bill in California. With the support of Equality California, the National Center for Lesbian Rights, and the ACLU, he introduced the first such bill in the nation on February 12, 2004. That same day, then-San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom started issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples at San Francisco City Hall. Mark’s equal marriage rights bill made history by passing through the state legislature in 2005 and 2007 (the only time this has happened in any state legislature). Although Mark’s marriage bill was vetoed twice by then-Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, the 2004 marriage licenses, amplified by years of activism, ballot measures, and court cases, all helped provide the legal groundwork for the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark 2015 ruling establishing marriage equality as the law of the land.

In 1999, as a county supervisor, Mark created the Transgender Civil Rights Implementation Task Force. Working with the community, Mark authored the first-of-its-kind in the nation local ordinance to provide equal access to the county health plan for transgender public employees. In 2003, he successfully authored a bill in the State Assembly to amend the Fair Employment and Housing Act prohibiting discrimination on the basis of gender identity. 

During Mark’s 14 years in the State Assembly and State Senate, where Mark was the first openly gay man to serve, he worked on a variety of issues. He fought for workers rights, consumer rights, civil rights, affordable housing, increased minimum wage, Medicare for all, protection of our climate, and quality public education. Driven by his determination to expand fairness, equity, and rights to all people, he remains a trailblazer and source of empowerment for the LGBTQ+ community and other marginalized groups in California and beyond.