WEST HOLLYWOOD MAYOR HAS DREAMS OF CONGRESS

John McDonald

On a date during her sophomore year in college, Sepi Shyne had what would turn out to be a fateful brush with oppression.

“It was a very scary experience, and it kind of shifted me into activism,” she recalled.

Shyne was sitting with her girlfriend drinking lattes at a coffee shop in San Jose, California, when the manager, accompanied by a police officer, approached their table.

“The next thing I know, they are standing over us, and the police officer looks down and says, ‘You two need to get up and leave. The manager doesn’t want your kind in this establishment.’”

The manager then blew a kiss and winked as Shyne and her girlfriend beat a hasty retreat.

“We got up and ran out of there in tears,” she said. “We were both immigrants and scared of authority figures who were abusing their power.”

The incident strengthened the women’s resolve to get their law degrees and fight injustice. Two decades later, Shyne is now the mayor of West Hollywood, California, and campaigning for a seat in Congress.

“West Hollywood has and always will be on the right side of history — on the side of human rights, a sanctuary city for the LGBTQ+ community and immigrants,” she said.

Elected to the West Hollywood City Council in 2020, Shyne became the first lesbian of

Iranian descent in the world to hold public office.

Shyne came out to her mother in high school, and when the incident at the coffee shop in San Jose happened, she decided to become more vocal and visible in her advocacy efforts.

Shyne’s reputation as a civil rights advocate landed her a guest appearance on CNN. It was after that that she realized she could no longer return to Iran.

“LGBTQ people that are out are killed, and I would have been killed,” she said.

When U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein announced her upcoming retirement earlier this year, it set off a chain reaction in the Democratic ranks. U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff quickly announced his intentions to seek the Senate seat, leaving Congressional District 30, which includes West Hollywood, up for grabs.

So, inspired by the Iranian “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement, Shyne said she felt called to step up and run for the congressional seat being vacated in order to fight for the American dream she represents.

“I am literally a product of the American dream myself,” Shyne said. “I was an undocumented immigrant when I fled Iran. I was undocumented until I was 16, and now I’m the mayor of West Hollywood, and I want to make sure our democracy remains, and I’m going to fight for that.”

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