Posted on 03/21/2025 3:44:07 PM PDT by nickcarraway
To some longtime Bay Area residents, El Cerrito is just another bedroom community — the type of suburb with little to distinguish it beyond two BART stations, a large stock of midcentury modern homes and a relatively low crime rate.
But in a metro area with one of the nation’s highest percentages of LGBTQ adults, few towns are more queer-friendly than this idyllic burg of about 25,000 just north of Berkeley. At a time when President Donald Trump is waging a culture war on LGBTQ rights, especially those of transgender people, El Cerrito has become a trailblazer in local queer politics.
On top of boasting a city council with Northern California’s first LGBTQ majority, its mayor, Carolyn Wysinger, is the first out Black lesbian in California history to hold that title. And local officials aren’t stopping there. The time has come, Wysinger reasons, for El Cerrito to shed its bedroom-community label by promoting itself nationally as a premier destination for LGBTQ families fleeing intolerance.
Since taking over as mayor in December, Wysinger, 46, has traveled the country touting her 4-square-mile town’s diversity and welcoming vibe. In addition to her more conventional mayoral objectives such as building a new library and more affordable housing, she hopes to orchestrate a large Pride Month event each June, introduce a Drag Queen Story Hour and name a drag laureate to serve as ambassador for the city’s LGBTQ community.
“El Cerrito has a history of doing these great things, then kind of letting them get overlooked,” said Wysinger, who spent three years as president of San Francisco Pride before getting elected to El Cerrito’s City Council in November 2022. “My big thing is visibility. We need to let the world know that, if you have an LGBTQ son or daughter, this is a great place for them to grow up.”
Such messages wouldn’t just help set El Cerrito apart from other centrally located suburbs with median housing prices of around $1 million. Only four years removed from a full-blown fiscal crisis, this small city near San Francisco Bay’s eastern shore must continue to become financially stable and reverse the 2.5% population decline it endured over the past half-decade.
By billing itself as a top option for LGBTQ people, El Cerrito could attract more queer-friendly businesses, create the kind of community feel that incentivizes residents to shop local, and boost foot traffic in its commercial hub. In doing so, this oft-overshadowed town known for its steep inclines would also provide an important antidote to prominent politicians’ divisive rhetoric.
Since Trump took office in late January, he has worked to ban transgender people from the military, ensure that the federal government recognizes only two sexes (male and female), restrict gender-affirming care for youth, and outlaw trans women and girls from participating in female sports in federally funded schools.
Two weeks ago, in a stunning reversal from his usual support of LGBTQ causes, California Gov. Gavin Newsom said during a podcast appearance that it’s “deeply unfair” for transgender athletes to participate in girls’ sports. Making matters worse: On March 9, Trump shared an article on Truth Social with a promo image showing a symbol that Nazis once used to identify gay men during the Holocaust.
“When you have the highest-ranking leaders in both the nation and your state attacking your very existence, it becomes even more important for local elected officials to do their part to foster an inclusive environment,” said Suzanne Ford, the first transgender person to serve as executive director of San Francisco Pride. “We need more local leaders like Carolyn, who is all about making everyone feel welcome.”
On a sunny recent Friday morning, at a Special Olympics event in El Cerrito High School’s gym, Wysinger wore a bright green track suit as she stood near midcourt with a microphone and welcomed students throughout the district. After posing for a couple selfies and catching up with old friends, she stepped outside and started to feel a little nervous.
In just six days, Wysinger was scheduled to speak on a political panel at the New York City house of renowned feminist and activist Gloria Steinem. Never mind that Wysinger receives only a modest monthly stipend for her part-time mayoral role. An accomplished LGBTQ author, she has seen her national profile balloon since her City Council colleagues voted her to serve as El Cerrito’s mayor this year.
“Doing what she has done is not easy,” said California’s first Black controller, Malia Cohen, who employs Wysinger part time to help manage her non-state-related communications. “The deck is stacked against people like Carolyn, in more ways than one.”
It isn’t just that Wysinger is leading the third town with an LGBTQ majority city council in California history — after Palm Springs and West Hollywood. In becoming the state’s first out Black lesbian mayor, she underscored how much progress queer politicians have yet to make.
Though the number of LGBTQ elected officials has surged nationally in recent years, Wysinger is believed to be the only active Black lesbian mayor in the U.S., which has been difficult for some people to fathom. There are more than 1,600 mayoral positions countrywide, many of which turn over annually.
Yet, as Wysinger has long recognized, being Black and gay isn’t as accepted as some might think — particularly when you’re a masculine-of-center-identifying lesbian who rocks a buzz cut and a blazer at City Council meetings.
When news of El Cerrito’s LGBTQ-majority City Council first broke this past fall, William Ktsanes — one of two out parents on the council — read all the articles online and was relieved to see that they were relatively benign. Then Ktsanes saw the comments, many of which were racist, homophobic or both.
“It’s moments like that where you really realize how far we still have to go as a society,” said Ktsanes, an adjunct professor in the University of San Francisco’s School of Management. “For us on the City Council, I think it’s motivation.”
Not that Wysinger needs any more. She spent part of her childhood in the housing projects of Richmond’s Southside, where a lack of grocery stores, restaurants and clothing shops forced her family to often make the short drive into the more affluent El Cerrito.
At the time, kids in Wysinger’s neighborhood bused into El Cerrito for high school. During her four years at El Cerrito High, she came to appreciate the city’s community pride, panoramic views of the Golden Gate Bridge and houses adorned with rainbow flags. Some of the gay people in San Francisco’s Castro district had begun to move there in the 1980s and ’90s for a slower-paced lifestyle.
When Wysinger returned to the Bay Area in 2013 after attending Cal State Long Beach and working in the Los Angeles area for almost a decade, she drove for Uber and delivered groceries for Instacart to supplement her income as a writer. Six years ago, while working as an English teacher at Richmond High School, she broke down in tears when a top administrator told her he wasn’t worried about the problems of a Black student who was struggling emotionally.
The teenage girl had been cited by police for her involvement in an on-campus fight. Once a high-achieving student with dreams of attending Brown University, the student’s grades slipped significantly after the incident.
“Just seeing the look in that administrator’s eyes, you could tell he didn’t care about the student at all,” Wysinger said. “After that, I really started to get serious about running for public office. These kids need local officials who take a real interest in their well-being.”
Wysinger felt especially drawn to El Cerrito. In 2013, it became the first Bay Area municipality other than San Francisco to fly a Pride flag over City Hall during Pride Month, helping popularize an annual tradition that now includes communities throughout the region. Five years later, El Cerrito was the first place in Contra Costa County to reserve a special section for LGBTQ-themed books in its library.
Inclusiveness is so essential to the city’s ethos that its official mission statement is about “serving our diverse community” to “create a safe and resilient future for all.” Aside from Wysinger and Ktsanes, El Cerrito’s five-member City Council includes lesbian mother Rebecca Saltzman and gay Mayor Pro Tem Gabe Quinto, who became the city’s first LGBTQ and Filipino council member when he joined 11 years ago.
When Saltzman and her then-pregnant wife were looking to move out of their old Victorian in Oakland in 2018, they were amazed by how many same-sex couples had children in El Cerrito’s public schools. The elementary school their daughter now attends has a Rainbow Families support group.
“Everyone can feel like they have a place here,” said City Manager Karen Pinkos, who has worked for El Cerrito for 24 years. “People choose to live here because they understand that any kind of family will be welcomed.”
It can be jarring, then, when El Cerritans check social media and see Trump’s latest attack on transgender people. While walking down Lincoln Avenue after her speaking engagement on that sunny recent Friday, Wysinger reflected on the numerous times over the years she has heard El Cerrito compared with Mayberry — the fictional town in “The Andy Griffith Show” famous for its simple living and strong community.
The analogy has long irked her. Though Wysinger knows it’s meant to pay homage to El Cerrito’s small-town charm, she can’t shake the feeling that it misses the point.
Mayberry was all-white. Meanwhile, what makes El Cerrito special is its diversity.
The big question now is how many more LGBTQ families will settle there. With the commander in chief desperately trying to strip transgender people of their rights, Wysinger’s purpose is clearer than ever.
“The (LGBTQ) agenda is alive and well in El Cerrito,” she said. “After all, you’ve got to love a place where a single, Black, childless lesbian can be mayor.”
Isn't he the first president in U.S. to support gay marriage when he took office? Didn't he have the first gay cabinet member? Doesn't he have even more this time? Didn't he put a gay judge on his beauty pageant? What other president in U.S. history was more pro-gay than Trump?
Watch and see what the domestic violence rates are compared to normal cities.
El Cerrito.
Isn’t that Spanish for Sodom and Gomorrah?
POTUS Trump has the temerity to say that well developed muscular men have an unfair advantage when competing athletically against inherently weaker females. The horror! /s
Domestic violence is supposedly highest among lesbians couples, but supposedly lowest among gay male couples.
-PJ
What you wanna bet they have no Bibles in that library. If they do, they've cut out all the commandments against homosexuality.
For example, transgenders are made that gay men won't date transgender men, or that leasbians won't date transgender women.
The pervert supremacists don’t like not having special rights granted to them.
How would they know where in the Bible they were?
Watch and see what the domestic violence rates are compared to normal cities. <
But on the plus side, gays usually have more disposable income than straights. So I guess it’s a wash.
Good for local businesses.
Bad for overworked police.
And gay coupes have more income than straight couples.
Please!! Do not post a picture of this thing. The mental image is gross enough.
Biden was more pro-gay. Only,he didn’t know it.
What is a better sign of tolerance, and diversity than an ALL gay(or lgbqtrsv++..) city?
The good thing about it is that all the drug abuse clinics, psychiatrist care, VD clinics, HIV, cancer clinics, dialysis clinics,S&M shops, bathhouses, infectious disease experts, fop clothiers, and Broadway show theaters will be in close proximity. Just think of the outdoor, neighborhood block party sex orgies. They could start a porn website with all the public action going on.
I think they’re POed because no one is paying attention to them now ,LOL
This moron is about to learn what a Regulatory Taking is.
“””What other president in U.S. history was more pro-gay than Trump?”””
He just seems to be able to determine what a person can do or what skills and talents they have. If they are financial wizards they can be Sec of Treasury and being gay is irrelevant.. The democrats would focus on the gay part regardless of how worthless they are at the position, as in the case of Pete Buttgiggity.
Technically, it’s “the little mountain.”
Previously, El Cerrito’s claim to fame was as the hometown of legendary rock group Creedence Clearwater Revivial.
Gays make more money than straight men.
What would be hilarious is if muzzies decided to populate their lil’ gay community. would like to see them practice their “inclusive” mantra then.
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