Assemblymember Rick Zbur

Assemblymember Rick Chavez Zbur has spent his life fighting for equality and justice — for women, LGBTQ+ people, immigrants, communities of color and people living with HIV. Justice for our planet and for the communities most impacted by pollution and climate change. Economic justice for working families and renters. Racial justice and an end to systemic racism. Health justice for everyone. As a gay man coming out during the early years of the AIDS crisis, Rick saw hundreds of his friends become ill, which motivated him to become an AIDS activist at a time when our federal government was failing to act. As an environmental lawyer, Rick has been a statewide leader advocating for the environment and the urgency of addressing climate change. He has served on the Board of the California League of Conservation Voters for over 20 years — as president for six of those years. As board president, Rick helped shape the organization’s priorities to address environmental justice and a focus on vulnerable communities that are hardest hit by pollution, and to advance sustainable housing and green job programs to address climate change. In 2014, Rick left his law firm to become the Executive Director of Equality California, the nation’s largest statewide LGBTQ+ civil rights organization. At Equality California, he led the organization through a period of significant growth and an expansion of its mission to include advancing civil rights and social justice for the diverse communities to which LGBTQ+ people belong — communities of color, communities of faith, immigrants, women and people living with HIV.