String of Coming-Outs Continue with California Lawmaker

A California lawmaker who helped pass a law requiring that LGBT history be taught in schools has come out as a lesbian, saying she wants to serve as an example to kids.

Assemblywoman Cathleen Galgiani told her local newspaper that she's gay during an interview on Tuesday.

"It sickens me that young people would think about taking their lives because of who they are," Galgiani told the Stockton Record.

The Democrat was a co-sponsor on the state's FAIR Education Act, which requires curriculum about the gay civil rights movement be taught among other history lessons. She realized she's a lesbian late in life, only after being elected, she told the newspaper. And her family has been entirely accepting.

Actor Zachary Quinto came out recently in an interview for similar reasons, citing the suicide of 14-year-old Jamey Rodemeyer as the moment that made him want to show there's no reason to hide being gay.

"It became clear to me in an instant that living a gay life without publicly acknowledging it is simply not enough to make any significant contribution to the immense work that lies ahead on the road to complete equality," he wrote on his blog in October.

Quinto then inspired ABC's World News Now anchor Dan Kloeffler to come out on air.

"For the same reason that Zach decided to come out, I too, no longer wanted to hide this part of my life," he said afterward. "There have been too many tragic endings and too many cases of bullying because of intolerance."