David E. Clarenbach (1953-) was an elected public official in Wisconsin 1972-1993: Dane County Board of Supervisors (elected 1972 and 1974); Madison City Council (1974); Wisconsin State Assembly (elected nine terms beginning 1974) and served as Speaker Pro Tem of the State Assembly 1983-1993. He was a Democratic candidate for US Congress (defeated 1992).
Clarenbach was born in St. Louis, MO. He was raised in Madison, WI in a politically active family – mother Kathryn F. Clarenbach (1920-1994) was a professor at the University of Wisconsin, nationally prominent feminist leader and founding chair of the National Organization of Women; father Henry G. Clarenbach (1914-1987) was a civil rights and anti-war activist and a Eugene McCarthy delegate to the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. David's political activism began while attending Madison West High School in the student rights, civil rights and anti-Vietnam War peace movements. Living with civil rights icon Fannie Lou Hamer over spring break in 1970, registering Black voters in rural Mississippi, helped shape his commitment to political and electoral change.
Upon election to the Dane County Board of Supervisors in April 1972, Clarenbach became the first 18-year old in state history to serve in elected public office. In the State Assembly, he is credited with authoring groundbreaking LGBTQ+ civil rights legislation including the nation's first statewide gay rights law (enacted 1982) prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation in employment, housing and public accommodations. He also sponsored the consenting adults bill (enacted 1983) repealing the sodomy statutes and legalizing all sexual activity between consenting adults; the hate crimes bill (enacted 1988) creating criminal penalties for violence motivated by bigotry; a bill of rights for people with AIDS and HIV infection (enacted 1990) banning discrimination in the healthcare and insurance industries. He also authored the plant closing bill (enacted 1977), nuclear power plant moratorium bill (enacted 1983), Yahara Watershed regulatory and Madison lakes clean-up bill (enacted 1990), and legislation to expand healthcare to thousands of uninsured families (enacted 1991). As Speaker Pro Tem of the State Assembly, serving as presiding officer during legislative sessions, Clarenbach gained bipartisan respect for fostering civility and decorum during debate and fairness in rulings on parliamentary procedure and points of order.
Clarenbach was a delegate to the Democratic National Conventions in 1980 (Wisconsin chair of California Governor Jerry Brown's presidential campaign), in 1984 (pledged to former Vice-President and eventual nominee Walter Mondale), and in 1988 (statewide co-chair of Reverend Jesse Jackson's presidential campaign).
Following his tenure in elected office, Clarenbach was Executive Director of the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund (1995-96), a national political action committee in Washington, DC supporting openly LGBT candidates for public office. He mentored openly LGBTQ+ candidates of both political parties including Tammy Baldwin, his successor in the State Assembly who was eventually elected as the nation's first openly lesbian member of the US House of Representatives and who currently serves as the first openly LGBTQ+ member of the US Senate.
Clarenbach is now retired and living in Madison. He continues to be politically involved. He also volunteers to tutor foreign students learning English as a second language, and for local LGBTQ+ community organizations.
