San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
Todd Gloria has had a whirlwind two decades as a public servant.
Beginning with his successful 2008 San Diego City Council election, followed up by his second successful campaign in 2012 — this time as president of the San Diego City Council — Gloria has been strapped to a rocket headed to public servant fame that would make Leslie Knope’s head spin, with no signs of slowing down.
Just one year into his tenure as president of the San Diego City Council, Bob Filner, the then-mayor of the city, resigned from his role following multiple allegations of sexual harassment. In that moment of political uncertainty, Gloria stepped up, becoming the interim mayor of San Diego, and the leader of one of the largest cities in the U.S.
While his term as interim mayor — lasting from August 2013 to March 2014 — was not long, it was a sign to the people of San Diego — and to himself — that Gloria could do good things for San Diego. When the newly elected Mayor Kevin Faulconer was sworn in in March 2014, Gloria continued working hard to keep the city he grew up in in caring hands.
Gloria started to look past “America’s Finest City” and began looking toward Sacramento. It was there that some of the state’s most capable minds were attempting to tackle problems that the entire Golden State faced. In 2016, he ran for the California State Assembly’s 78th District seat, representing San Diego, where he won with an impressive margin and started championing the city’s climate action plan. Shortly after assuming office, he was chosen to become a member of the Democratic leadership — as assistant majority whip — where he helped pass his and the Democratic Party’s legislative goals in the most populous state in the nation.
It should be no surprise that, with a growing reputation as someone bent on making his city better for the more than 400,000 residents who live within the 78th District, Gloria won re-election in 2018 with more than 70 percent of the vote in both the primary and general elections. There, he was tapped once again to be an integral part of the Democratic Party’s legislative mission and was, in January 2018, made majority whip.
In 2019, Gloria announced he would no longer seek the 78th District seat when his term was up, but would return from Sacramento to San Diego — this time as mayor. He ran his campaign on issues that San Diegans faced: the housing crisis, affordability, public transportation, and climate change.
In November 2020, Gloria was elected mayor of the city he grew up in, where he broke barriers — his win also made him the first Native American and the first Filipino American to hold this position in a U.S. city with more than a million people, becoming San Diego’s first mayor of color. He was also the city’s first openly gay mayor.
The Washington Blade sat down with Gloria when he visited Washington earlier this month for the U.S. Conference of Mayors, where he was elected president of the organization. The presidency lasts for one year and alternates between political parties to ensure bipartisanship.
Gloria, has served as mayor of San Diego since 2020, will lead the nearly century-old bipartisan organization as a proud out gay man at a time when many LGBTQ Americans are concerned about the future of their rights and protections.
“Well, a lot. I think the first thing that comes to mind is that this time that we’re all living in, the stakes feel particularly high, and I think number one, I’d want your readers to understand that this is a conference of bipartisan mayors from all across the country who supported me to lead the organization that’s nearly 100 years old,” he explained.
“I think at a time when we definitely wonder, as queer people, where we sit in our nation and in our society, that my fellow mayors of all different political stripes are willing to allow me to be their voice as leader of this organization. I hope it somehow validates the notion that we are still making progress, that particularly the political process is still possible.”
Gloria framed his election as evidence that progress remains possible, even amid growing political polarization. He noted that the U.S. Conference of Mayors was founded during the Great Depression, another period when local leaders stepped forward to address challenges they felt were not being adequately addressed at the federal level.
Throughout the interview, Gloria repeatedly emphasized the unique role cities can play in advancing LGBTQ equality. He pointed to the U.S. Conference of Mayors’ long history of supporting civil rights, HIV/AIDS advocacy, and LGBTQ inclusion, and his belief that mayors often find common ground on issues where Washington remains divided as a clear thesis to his presidency.
“It’s building on the history. It’s one of the reasons I’m very proud of this organization. Why I’ve been an active member for years now is that it has this storied history of speaking up and helping to advance change in this country. Everything from direct aid to cities in the Great Depression to civil rights in the 1960s to equality, HIV/AIDS advocacy during a time of great stigma and shame,” Gloria said. “This conference, again a bipartisan organization, has been willing to sort of be able to find a common ground that maybe isn’t always possible in Washington.”
Gloria also highlighted San Diego’s own LGBTQ political history, noting that the city has maintained continuous LGBTQ representation on its City Council since the early 1990s. He credited generations of local activists for helping create a political environment where LGBTQ elected officials have been able to thrive.
With Pride Month unfolding amid continued battles over LGBTQ rights nationwide, Gloria argued that cities remain important centers of progress and power, even when state and federal politics become more hostile.
“We have quite a bit [of power] because we can often do things within our own communities, but also we can band together and lend our voices to try and either stop bad things from happening or help advance good things that we’d like to see come to pass.”
He added that cities provide opportunities to continue advancing equality — even when, at a national level, conditions seem unfavorable.
“Cities provide avenues to say ‘No, we can actually make progress, maybe not at the scale, maybe not as broad as we would like, but it can still happen.’”
While Gloria has championed LGBTQ rights throughout his political career, he said housing affordability has emerged as the defining civil rights challenge facing many communities, including LGBTQ residents.
“The biggest civil rights issue right now is housing,” Gloria said.
He argued that many LGBTQ people can now legally live and work openly in places like San Diego, but increasingly struggle to remain in those communities because of rising housing costs.
“You know, we are a very affirming city. We have a gay mayor. 1/3 of our city council is LGBT. We have all of the protections that you would hope a city would provide in a state that provides those same protections, but we’re horrifically expensive, and our housing costs are unattainable to so many people of all walks of life.”
As president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, Gloria said he hopes to elevate housing affordability as a national issue and encourage local leaders to adopt policies that increase housing production and reduce costs.
On LGBTQ-specific initiatives, Gloria pointed to his work co-chairing the organization’s LGBTQ Alliance alongside Madison, Wis., Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway. Under their leadership, the alliance created a municipal toolkit designed to help mayors implement LGBTQ-inclusive policies, ranging from Pride Month proclamations to nondiscrimination protections and fair housing measures.
“We have a lot of allies and come to our meetings, we meet four times a year, and you want to be supportive of the community. This is what this looks like.”
Beyond policy, Gloria described the alliance as an important support network for LGBTQ elected officials navigating increasingly hostile political rhetoric.
“When the attacks on trans people, specifically trans children start happening, that was an issue that we discussed at length in the alliance.”
Despite his optimism, Gloria acknowledged that recent years under the current federal leadership have challenged assumptions many LGBTQ Americans once held about the inevitability of continued progress — and the idea that rights gained were forever.
“I think for someone who you know came up in the movement in the 90s and early 2000s you know, I’ve seen marriage equality, I’ve seen the progress with HIV and AIDS, you know, ability to work and live where you want, you know, all that stuff. It kind of felt like, for me, it felt like it was inevitable that we would keep ascending to greater and greater equality,” he said. “Obviously, recent years have made you not only stop some of that progress, but really question if we’re not going to start falling backwards.”
Still, Gloria urged LGBTQ Americans not to retreat from civic engagement or get quiet about the problems they face, given the constant barrage of attacks — both executive and cultural — that leaves some feeling as if the battle for equality is waning.
“This is not a time to back away. This is not a time to fold inward. We have to truly double down and continue forward doing the work. Leaning forward will mean that the progress may be less than what we want, but still progress will be made.”
Gloria also said he has noticed a change in the tone of political discourse directed at elected officials, including LGBTQ leaders. While he said hostile rhetoric has increased, he views his position as an opportunity to model resilience for younger LGBTQ people.
“You can either absorb it the way I did in middle school and feel kind of crummy and maybe a little bit sorry for myself, or you can realize that every time I’m called that, there’s a young person in a school who does not have the perspective I have, and they’re counting on me to figure out some way forward.”
As he begins his year leading the U.S. Conference of Mayors, Gloria said his priorities will focus on housing affordability, public safety, and economic issues affecting cities nationwide — issues he is familiar with. Success, he said, will ultimately be measured not by political messaging or narratives spun, but instead by tangible results.
Results that matter — even if they aren’t seen as glamorous. These are results that show the city is being effectively run for its citizens, he explained.
“The question is, did the garbage get picked up? Did the road get paved? Did the homeless person find housing?”
Addressing the relationship between cities and the Trump-Vance administration, Gloria said local leaders have had to navigate a political environment defined by unpredictability.
“The only thing that’s certain about this administration is the uncertainty,” he said, though he was clear that such uncertainty does not give the administration a pass to act unjustly. “My city has sued the Trump administration, I believe, eight times at this point, and we’ll continue to do that when it’s necessary or appropriate.”
Even so, Gloria maintained that mayors are uniquely positioned to cut through political rhetoric because residents judge them on day-to-day outcomes rather than partisan talking points.
“I think we are a bit more pragmatic, I think, a bit more focused on making sure that what we’re doing is improving people’s lives, not harming it.”
For Gloria, that practical focus — and the willingness of mayors from across the political spectrum to work together — offers reason for optimism despite the challenges ahead.
When asked what he thinks about the future of not only San Diego, but of the country given the increasingly hostile political climate, he provided a chance to peer into his mind: the mind of a public servant who is determined to make his place better than the day before, even if it does boil down to ensuring trash is collected and housing is affordable for all.
“Being an elected official is in itself an act of optimism. It’s a belief that you can help make things better, and it’s difficult to be in this line of work and be pessimistic.”
That goes hand-in-hand with making every city a better place for those who will enjoy the fruits of the labor sewn well after the mayors at this year’s conference have come and gone. That is why Gloria is doing what he is doing.
“I think for every kid, wherever they are, they’re wondering if they can be their full selves.It’s incumbent on us to do, because every one of these terrible headlines that we see may be frustrating to those of us that have seen some of that progress,” he said. “I think it could be devastating for these young people who have not known anything different, and we owe it to them to find better headlines to give them, both in the short and long term.”
The National LGBT Media Association represents 13 legacy publications in major markets across the country with a collective readership of more than 400K in print and more than 1 million + online. Learn more here: NationalLGBTMediaAssociation.com.
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