Bevan Dufty (born February 27, 1955) is an American politician and Director of HOPE (Housing Opportunity, Partnerships and Engagement) for the

City and County of San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

. In 2012, Dufty was elected to serve as a Member of the San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee. Previously, he was a Member of the

San Francisco Board of Supervisors The San Francisco Board of Supervisors is the legislative body within the government of the City and County of San Francisco. Government and politics The City and County of San Francisco is a consolidated city-county, being simultaneously a c ...

, and was elected in 2002 to represent the City's 8th District, succeeding

Mark Leno Mark Leno (born September 24, 1951) is an American politician who served in the California State Senate until November 2016. A Democrat, he represented the 11th Senate district, which includes San Francisco and portions of San Mateo County. Bef ...

. Dufty was re-elected as Supervisor in 2006 and was termed out in 2011.

Early life

Dufty is the son of the writer

William Dufty William Francis Dufty (February 2, 1916 – June 28, 2002) was an American writer, musician, and activist. Dufty was a supporter of trade unionism and was an organizer for the United Auto Workers, wrote speeches for former UAW President Walter ...

and Maely Bartholomew, who had lost most of her family in the Holocaust. Dufty was raised in

Harlem Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street (Manhattan), 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and 110th Street (Manhattan), ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

where his mother befriended jazz musician

Billie Holiday Billie Holiday (born Eleanora Fagan; April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959) was an American jazz and swing music singer. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and music partner, Lester Young, Holiday had an innovative influence on jazz music and pop s ...

, who would later become his godmother. His voice can be heard on a recording made in the Dufty household where Holiday makes jokes about his red underpants. After moving from Harlem to

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

at age 16, Dufty finished high school at

Menlo-Atherton High School Menlo-Atherton High School (known as M-A to locals) is a four-year public charter secondary school located in Atherton, California. Menlo-Atherton is part of the Sequoia Union High School District.

, south of

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

. Dufty graduated from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

, where he was a student body co-president and earned a degree in Political Science.

Political career

Dufty served as Senior Legislative Assistant for Education in the office of New York Rep.

Shirley Chisholm Shirley Anita Chisholm ( ; ; November 30, 1924 – January 1, 2005) was an American politician who, in 1968, became the first black woman to be elected to the United States Congress. Chisholm represented New York's 12th congressional distr ...

. Later, he served as Chief Legislative Aide to Rep.

Julian Dixon Julian Carey Dixon (August 8, 1934 – December 8, 2000) was an American Democratic politician from California who was a member of the California State Assembly from 1973 to 1978 and then a member of the United States House of Representative ...

, a post in which he helped craft legislation that created the Los Angeles Metro Rail system. In San Francisco, he worked for former Supervisor Susan Leal, served as a Senior Advisor for Mayor Willie Brown and as Director of Neighborhood Services. A

Democrat Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to: Politics *A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people. *A member of a Democratic Party: **Democratic Party (United States) (D) **Democratic ...

, Dufty was elected a supervisor from the city's eighth district in 2002 before being re-elected in 2006. He served as Chair of the

San Francisco County Transportation Authority The San Francisco County Transportation Authority (SFCTA) is a state chartered sub-regional transportation planning and programming agency for San Francisco County. SFCTA is a separate legal entity from the San Francisco Municipal Transportation ...

, Chair of the City Operations & Neighborhood Services Committee as well as a Representative on the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District Board.

Personal life

Dufty is openly

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...

. His election campaigns have often won the backing of the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund. In 2006, Dufty and lesbian friend Rebecca Goldfader (an Ob/Gyn nurse practitioner and Pilates instructor) had a child, Sidney.

References

External links

Campaign websiteUnsolicited Yelp review (of Golden Gate Transit) incorporating a letter from Bevan Dufty
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dufty, Bevan Gay politicians Jewish American state legislators in California LGBT Jews Living people San Francisco Board of Supervisors members 1955 births LGBT city councillors from the United States LGBT people from the San Francisco Bay Area Place of birth missing (living people) People from Harlem University of California, Berkeley alumni LGBT people from New York (state) 21st-century American Jews 21st-century LGBT people