The State - News from July 23, 1989

A group has launched a petition drive to recall the Fremont school board president, accusing him of defrauding voters by not disclosing he was gay until after he had been in office for four years. The Fremont Family Alliance filed recall papers last week against board president Robert Stipicevich. The group has five months to gather 12,000 signatures for a recall measure to be put on the ballot. Stipicevich, who was one of the youngest elected officials in California when he won a school board seat four years ago at age 22, disclosed his homosexuality at a news conference in May, saying he was tired of constant whispering behind his back. “I think it’s real important to say that I am not living a lie,” he said. “There isn’t an office in the land or a position in the country that’s worth it.” Stipicevich said his homosexuality was “irrelevant to the job I’m doing on the school board.” In addition to defrauding voters, the Family Alliance says, his homosexuality created a conflict of interest, arguing that he should have abstained from voting on the school district’s recently enacted AIDS education curriculum.