LOS ANGELES — Equality California, the nation’s largest statewide LGBTQ+ civil rights organization, announced the hiring of Shay Franco-Clausen as its new Political Director. Franco-Clausen, an experienced political consultant and veteran of many candidate and ballot initiative campaigns, will lead electoral and civic engagement programs as the organization gears up for the critical 2024 Presidential Primary and General elections.
Franco-Clausen is an award winning public speaker, political strategist and community leader based in Hayward where she serves on the Hayward Planning Commission. She is a former Bay Area elected official, and was the first Afro-Latina elected to the Santa Clara County Open Space Authority. She has served as PAC Chair of the Courage California C4 Board, Vice Chair of the California Democratic Party LGBTQ Caucus, Co-Chair of the National Black Justice Coalition’s “Good Trouble Network,” PAC Chair for the East Bay Stonewall Democratic Club and is a member of the Victory Fund Campaign Board. She has played a pivotal role in extending the statute of limitations for felony domestic violence survivors, advocating for the rights of foster youth, preserving endangered open spaces, and championing a ballot measure to restore voting rights for individuals on parole. Franco-Clausen and her wife Yolanda, a Special Victims Detective, have raised five children in the Bay Area. She will report to Executive Director Tony Hoang and Managing Director of External Affairs Tom Temprano.
“We’re excited to welcome Shay to our team as we gear up for a historic election and continue our fight for full, lived LGBTQ+ equality,” said Equality California Executive Director Tony Hoang. “Shay brings exceptional experience in politics — as a candidate, an elected official and a strategist — and is the perfect person to lead our community through this critical election that could include another showdown at the top of the ticket between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, critical state and federal legislative races, school board races in areas where the rights of trans students are under attack, and the opportunity to remove the stain of Proposition 8 and enshrine marriage equality in the California constitution.”
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Equality California is the nation’s largest statewide LGBTQ civil rights organization. We bring the voices of LGBTQ people and allies to institutions of power in California and across the United States, striving to create a world that is healthy, just, and fully equal for all LGBTQ people. We advance civil rights and social justice by inspiring, advocating and mobilizing through an inclusive movement that works tirelessly on behalf of those we serve. www.eqca.org
