JACKIE BISKUPSKI
Jackie Biskupski, named after former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, is the 35th Mayor of Salt Lake City (she took office in January). She’s also SLC’s first openly gay mayor and only its second female mayor. In other words, just after winning the election last November, she made history. Before her triumphant mayoral run, Biskupski served for 12 years as a Democratic member of the Utah House of Representatives from the 30th district. Originally from Hastings, Minn., she grew up in a big Polish-American family and attended Catholic schools. After high school, she enrolled in Arizona State University, where she graduated with a degree in criminal justice. Then she fell in love with Utah’s ski slopes and found it hard to leave. There, she worked in the automotive insurance industry, and later as a private inves-tigator, but switched gears in the mid-1990s and became involved in politics. What prompted the change in career path? Seeing an injustice. The SLC School Board and the Utah State Legislature tried to stamp out a gay/straight student alliance club. Biskupski came out herself as a lesbian in 1989 and is engaged to her partner, Betty Iverson. Together, they’re raising two sons. In mid-June, Biskupski officiated another couple’s same-sex wedding and proudly tweeted: “A reminder that #lovewins…” –SLO
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