Mark Leno (born September 24, 1951) is an American politician who served consecutively in both houses of the California State Legislature from 2002 to 2016.

A member of the California Legislative LGBT Caucus, Leno was the first openly gay man elected to the State Senate.

Leno is the owner of Budget Signs Inc., a small business; following his departure from the Legislature he was a candidate in the 2018 San Francisco mayoral special election, which he narrowly lost to London Breed.

Working with his life partner, Douglas Jackson, the business continued to grow and their involvement in community affairs steadily expanded.

[3][4] Prior to his election, his political background included raising money for candidates and causes such as AIDS services, the San Francisco LGBT Community Center, the U.S.

In 2000, as a supervisor, he supported Proposition L, the slow-growth measure and authored legislation to protect neighborhood business districts from big box retail.

[6] In 2001, Leno successfully introduced an ordinance providing equal access to the city's health plan for transgender employees of San Francisco.

He also authored Assembly Bill 1358, the California Complete Streets Act, to require cities and counties to consider including walking and bicycling in their general plans.

He coauthored the AB 583, California Clean Money and Fair Elections Act, to bring public financing to political campaigns.

[10] During his 14-year term in the State Legislature, Leno authored numerous bills[11] including: Leno has been recognized by LGBT organizations,[25] civil rights advocacy groups, and non-profits[26] throughout his tenure for his commitment to public service and for authoring legislation to combat discrimination,[27] protect the rights of all Californians,[18] and lift millions out of poverty.

[3] In 2004, Leno received the Award of Courage from American Foundation for AIDS Research and was honored by the Lesbian and Gay Lawyers Association of Los Angeles at their 25th Anniversary.

[34] In 2016, he was recognized by the Coachella Valley Harvey Milk Diversity Coalition for his leadership on LGBT issues,[35] the Mental Health Association of San Francisco for his work on mental health issues,[36] the Western Center on Law and Poverty for his dedication to public service,[37] and the Electronic Frontier Foundation for his work to protect digital privacy, among other recognitions.