Zbur continues fight for LGBTQ rights amid Trump attacks

Assemblymember Rick Chavez Zbur (D-51), 68, grew up in a rural farming community surrounded by animals and land in Rio Grande Valley, New Mexico — ultimately becoming the first person in his rural community to attend an Ivy League university. 

Since then, he has continued to build his reputation as an advocate and as a political leader in environmental justice and LGBTQ rights. 

Most recently, Zbur introduced Assembly Bill 309, which would support

California’s strategy to prevent the spread of HIV and viral hepatitis by preserving existing laws that increase access to sterile syringes at no added cost to the state. 

“Extensive research and data collection has repeatedly proven that increased access to sterile syringes significantly lowers rates of transmission and saves lives without increasing rates of drug use,” said Zbur when presenting AB 309. 

He added that the average estimated cost for lifetime medical costs related to HIV treatment for one person is $326,500. “Syringe access not only saves lives, but it also saves individuals and the state from the steep cost of treatment,” he continued. 

As a gay man in the peak of the AIDS crisis, Zbur saw some of his own close friends become ill, motivating him to become an AIDS activist at a time when the federal government was failing to provide resources to the community that needed them the most. 

“Since I’ve been in the Assembly, I’ve always had a number of bills every year that focus on uplifting the LGBTQ community, as well as getting to zero, in terms of HIV — zero transmissions, zero deaths, zero stigma.”

Prior to this bill and a few others, Zbur also introduced AB 5, which he says was a culmination of eight years worth of work, from the time he started working for Equality California (EQCA), the state’s largest nonprofit organization dedicated toward advocating for LGBTQ civil rights.

AB 5, which was passed and is now known as the Safe and Supportive Schools

Act, is meant to improve the conditions for LGBTQ students in schools. 

“I think this bill has the most impact for LGBTQ youth and it’s the one I’m proudest of because it requires that every teacher in California schools has LGBTQ cultural competency training, to make sure that our schools are safe and supportive.”  Zbur, a longtime advocate for the LGBTQ community, has a long history of activism. 

In the early 1980s, Zbur campaigned for the fight against HIV/AIDS, helped found the Children Affected by AIDS Foundation and alongside the Los Angeles LGBT Center, organized fundraisers for Bill Clinton while he was governor of Arkansas, and Barbara Boxer, who was then running for U.S. Senate. 

“I think part of me coming out more publicly was due to the HIV epidemic and

the fact that I had friends that were getting sick,” he said. “I had a long-term boyfriend

back then and we started to get politically active, really trying to make sure that the government was doing something about the HIV epidemic.”

He says that this is when he decided he was going to get Barbara Boxer elected, because she was the only Senate candidate during that time who was even mentioning the LGBTQ community. 

In 1996, Zbur ran for the United States House of Representatives in California’s 38th congressional district against Republican incumbent Steve Horn. He became the first openly gay non-incumbent congressional primary candidate to win an election when he won the Democratic primary election on March 26, 1996. 

During many years following that win, Zbur jumped into another pool of justice

fighting for environmental issues and then in 2014, joined Equality California as

executive director. Under his leadership, EQCA quadrupled in size, passed groundbreaking legislation to advance LGBTQ equality measures and sued the Trump-Pence administration twice, blocking attacks against the transgender community of California. 

In 2022, Zbur was elected to the California State Assembly to represent the 51st

Assembly District, a position he currently serves. He was appointed in July 2023 by Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas to serve as the Democratic Caucus Chair of the California Assembly, one of the Speaker’s key leadership positions. During that time, he also led the advancement in civil rights and social justice for the many other marginalized communities within the LGBTQ umbrella, such as communities of color, communities of faith, immigrants women and people living with HIV. 

Zbur says that his work is never over. 

“We’re facing greater risks that are greater than I think we’ve faced in recent

years coming out of the [first] Trump administration. The targeting of transgender and

gender non-conforming people is an even greater part of his hostility toward our

community,” he said. “It’s very real, and we see that it’s not just rhetoric. He’s taking real steps to try to shut down the healthcare that LGBTQ people and transgender people need.”

Zbur says that he and the other members of the LGBTQ Caucus in Sacramento

are constantly thinking of those decisions and the repercussions. 

“I have another bill that is focused on helping transgender people get the

government documents they need, so they can protect themselves from the Trump Administration and so that they can travel easily to get medical care.” 

Zbur says that his own coming out story was positive, but he grew up in a time

where he did not know anyone who was out about their identity. He went through many trials and tribulations to end up in a space where he was finally accepted. 

“For me, coming to terms with the fact that I was LGBTQ, was something that

took a number of years,” said Zbur. “The world was just a very different place back then and the risks were high, coming out.” 

When he started his career as a lawyer, he became a partner in a law firm called

Latham and Walkins, where there was not a single person who was out. 

“I eventually came out when I was a fourth or fifth year associate and I became

the first out lawyer in the firm’s history, though there were other gay lawyers at the firm.”

Now, at 68, Zbur says that his only regret is that he lived in the closet for too long.

“When I look back at the things I regret, it’s that I lived in the closet for as long as I did,” he said. “That is a very limiting thing that I think doesn’t allow your soul or your spirit to flourish."