Luis Lopez
Luis Lopez is a progressive Democrat with a track record of more than 15 years of service and leadership for the communities of Northeast Los Angeles. He is a 7-year board member of Planned Parenthood – Los Angeles. He has devoted his career to ensuring all people have access to quality and affordable healthcare. In addition to being a fierce advocate for women’s reproductive rights, Luis has fought for critically important safety-net programs for children, seniors, and people with disabilities through expanded Medi-Cal benefits and services for vulnerable and underserved people.
Luis has been a leader for affordable housing, parks, and transportation in Los Angeles for more than a decade. From 2008 to 2013, he served as President of the East Area Planning Commission and has continued to work for multiple solutions to counteract the crisis of housing scarcity, rising rents, unrewarded productivity in workers' wages, and homelessness. From 2005 to 2008, he served as chair of City Regional Prop K Commission (RVNOC) to sustain parks through local oversight of funds approved by city taxpayers. At a time when record numbers of Angelenos who bike and walk are getting killed and injured, Luis has pushed for complete streets and dedicated funding to speed construction, improve safety, and stop congestion.
Luis has worked to bring more Latinos and immigrants into the electorate and elected office. In 2002 and 2004, he designed a voter-registration program targeting Latino communities to participate in state and federal elections. In 2005, Luis built and ran the Latino Coalition Against AIDS to promote awareness and prevention of HIV-AIDS, along with glaring disparities in early detection and treatment.
Luis broke new ground in the struggle for LGBT civil rights. In 2005, he co-founded Honor PAC and served as founding president for five years. Honor PAC is the first statewide Latina/o LGBT political action committee anywhere in the nation dedicated to empowering LGBT Latinas/os and winning equality. He was a leader in the fight against Prop 8 in 2008, raising money to open the campaign's East L.A. office and shaping English and Spanish messages for Latinos and other voters. Luis and Honor PAC were recognized as grand marshals at the largest L.A.-area Pride celebration of 2010.
Luis has also fought to protect the environment. In 2014 he launched a program through The Eagle Rock Association (TERA) to organize his community and oppose the expansion of the dirty urban dump in Scholl Canyon, at the north end of Figueroa Street. He is an advocate for smarter waste policies that reduce known dangers to air and water quality, which the dump has imposed on Eastside Angelenos and other nearby residents for more than 50 years.
Luis serves in and has earned recognition for leadership from the Democratic Party. In June 2016, Democratic voters in the 51st Assembly District elected Luis to the Los Angeles County Democratic Central Committee, awarding him the highest vote totals of any candidate. In 2009, he was awarded a Democrat of the Year recognition by county Democrats.
Luis is a former Senior Consultant at KPMG Consulting Inc. (now Bearing Point, Inc.), where he managed large‐scale data projects. Prior to joining KPMG, Luis was a Social Science Analyst at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in Washington, D.C.
Luis was born in East Los Angeles and raised in El Monte. He lost his mother to kidney disease when he was 8 years old. Despite a rocky start early in life, he graduated from public schools and went on to earn degrees from Pomona College and Harvard University. He currently works at City of Hope in Duarte, California.He is the is the long time partner of Hans Johnson.
Latinos for Peace
On October 31 2009, Latinos For Peace issued a statement calling for “no escalation of the war in Afghanistan and for expedited withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq and Afghanistan as well as an end to the coup government in Honduras”.
More than 100 activists endorsed the call, including Luis Lopez, Los Angeles, CA.[1]