Judy Appel, president of the Berkeley School Board and former executive director of Our Family Coalition, and her spouse, attorney Alison Bernstein, were critically injured in an accident Saturday.
Appel and Bernstein were struck by a car as they were walking across a street in South Berkeley, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. The driver remained at the scene and is being cooperative.
Appel was executive director of Our Family Coalition (OFC) for 11 years, including the time of the Proposition 8 battle for marriage equality in California, when anti-equality proponents focused much of their campaign around the fear of what marriage equality would do to children. She nevertheless grew the organization into what I’d consider the most powerful regional LGBTQ family organization in the country. Under her leadership, OFC helped pass the Modern Family Act in 2014, and the Equal Protection for All Families Act in 2015, which helped LGBTQ parents in the state form and protect their families. She has worked towards welcoming and inclusive schools both in that role and in her time on the school board. She had also been a co-founding board member of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, which works on criminal justice reform. Appel ran for state assembly last year, but lost the election.
Appel and Bernstein, a senior deputy at the Office of the State Public Defender and lecturer at the University of California-Berkeley School of Law, have long been visible figures in the fight for LGBTQ families. Appel’s campaign website notes:
Judy and Alison were married for the first time in 1996 in a private ceremony, again in 2004, when San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom performed marriages on the steps of City Hall and finally, in 2013, during the Proposition 8 window. When she had her two children, Kobi and Tris, Judy joined the growing movement to win equality for their family and so many others.
One of their children is 20; the other is 16 (or maybe a year older by now; I don’t know their birthdays). Friends have set up a webpage for the family to hep them out, but I hear from a reliable source who knows them that they are overwhelmed with the outpouring of support there and ask that the link not be shared further until they get organized. I’ll keep this post updated with any public information and ways to help as they become available.
In the meantime, go read Appel’s 2014 piece, “Straight Talk From a Lesbian Mom” to remind yourself of her vision and leadership for our families.
My best wishes to them and their family as they recover.
Many thanks to you, Dana, for sharing this information. We genuinely are a very large, extended family, and these two women have had a big impact. I’ll stay in touch as we hear more, especially about how anyone concerned can lend a hand from afar. Meanwhile, gratitude for all we have and hold dear, and continued healing thoughts and prayers in their direction.