Rick Saslaw; Activist for Democrats

Rick Saslaw, a Democratic political activist who was former chief of staff for the California Democratic Council, has died at the age of 40.

Saslaw, a commercial real estate broker who was also a founding director of the West Hollywood Community Housing Corp., died Tuesday in Los Angeles of complications of AIDS.

A native of Forest Hills, N.Y., Saslaw attended Drew and Harvard universities and USC.

He was vice chairman of the New York and the national New Democratic Coalition and served on the national steering committee of the Vietnam Moratorium in the late 1960s.

After moving to California, he not only worked for the Democratic Council, but also was president of the Stonewall Democratic Club, chaired the 45th Assembly District Democratic Committee and served on the party’s state central committee executive board. In 1978 he became the first openly gay member of any Democratic National Party committee, serving on the platform advisory committee on affirmative action.

He also was founding co-chairman of the Lesbian and Gay Caucus of the Democratic National Party and served on the rules committee of the 1980 Democratic national convention.

Saslaw chaired the West Hollywood Alcohol and Drug Center and helped start the Los Angeles Center for Living, a support group for people with terminal illnesses.

He is survived by his parents, Joe and Ilse, and a sister, all of New York.