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Like many groundbreakers, Salt Lake City Mayor-elect Jackie Biskupski has a steely determination that allowed her to navigate the treacherous political currents of Utah's Legislature as its first openly gay member. She has what they call grit.
She earned her reputation the hard way among mostly white, conservative Mormon men, who weren't sure what to make of a lesbian newcomer. But one-time skeptics now describe her as an energetic and persuasive politician who sets goals and pursues them with collaboration and determination.
On Monday, she will become Salt Lake City's first openly gay mayor and only the second woman in the post.
That's the stuff of headlines, but there's more to the 49-year-old former high school varsity tennis player who dug the rock band Adam Ant. (Biskupski will turn 50 on Jan. 11.)
She grew up in the small, idyllic town of Hastings, Minn., the third of four children in the Catholic clan reared by Marvin and Arlene Biskupski. There, she and her friends spent summers pulling tassels off corn for minimum wage and blew their wads on albums by rock bands such as Journey, Styx and Kansas.
She was popular in the school of 425 students — her nomination to the Snow Queen pageant speaks to that. (The Hastings Snow Queen is similar to Homecoming Queen.) In the end, she settled for Snow Queen attendant.
"That's one election I didn't win," she quipped.
Her younger sister, June Biskupski, recalls their early lives and family outings, including boating, fishing and water skiing. Their father always had the family going somewhere.
"She was someone I looked up to, and she always had a lot of friends," June said of her older sister. "She's always been a leader and was on the debate team in high school."
But June had little idea about Jackie Biskupski the politician until she and her daughter visited Salt Lake City last summer to help with her sister's campaign.
"When I was there, it was eye-opening," June said, "to watch her run the campaign and to see her command the stage in the debate."
Biskupski was straightforward and likable in the small Midwestern town of 12,000, recalled longtime friend Peggy Medcraft, who met her in ninth grade when Biskupski joined the public school system after eight years in Catholic school.
"She's really genuine," Medcraft said. "She's the real deal. That's why I liked her."
The pair was among a close-knit group of 10 girls who did everything together.
"We'd hang out and listen to records," Medcraft recalled. "If someone was struggling, Jackie was there for that person."
Those friends stay in touch, and Biskupski looks them up twice a year when she visits her father. She even traveled to Hastings during the campaign.
"She came home and made time for her dad," Medcraft said. (Biskupski's mother died in 2001.)
"We had a little party for Jackie," Medcraft added. "She didn't have to make time for us, but she did."
Biskupski enjoys returning to Hastings and hanging out with the old gang.
"I like going back to be with the people there," she said. "When I go home, I'm just me."
And the town is proud of Biskupski. The Hastings Star Gazette followed the mayor's race closely. On Nov. 18, it carried the headline: "Hastings native Jackie Biskupski wins Salt Lake City, Utah, mayoral election."
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Setting sights • In 1984, Biskupski graduated from Hastings High and enrolled at Winona State University in Minnesota. Three years later, she transferred to Arizona State, where she earned a bachelor's degree in criminal justice. Her plan: to become an FBI agent.
In January 1989, she visited Utah on a ski trip to sample the state's legendary powder. She was smitten by the place and stayed. She launched a private investigation firm in Salt Lake City, but after five years of the less-than-glamorous grind, she gave it up for a more traditional job with State Farm Insurance. "It wasn't 'Magnum, P.I.,' " she lamented.
In 1994, Biskupski came out as a lesbian. But it was a flap at East High School in 1995 that sparked her political flame. A new club called the Gay/Straight Alliance caught the ire of school board members and legislators. The school board outlawed all clubs at East High to keep gay students and their supporters from meeting on school grounds. The ideals Biskupski had learned as a youngster in Hastings bubbled up.
She was named after Jackie Kennedy, and patriotism ran deep in the Biskupski household. She recalls her father loading up the family for a trip to Washington, D.C., for the July Fourth Bicentennial in 1976. It was during that same period when Biskupski recalls a history class in which the then-13-year-old learned about the civil rights movement and the Equal Rights Amendment. At one point in class, she became overwhelmed by the notion that she would work in civil rights.
"I didn't know what that would be," Biskupski said. "But it was something I knew I would do."
As the fracas drew on at East High, she felt guilty. What the school board and the Legislature were doing was wrong, she said.
"I hadn't done anything [in civil rights]," she said. "And I was embarrassed that I hadn't done anything."
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Seeking office • In 1997, she ran for a seat on the Salt Lake City Council and was narrowly defeated. A year later, she sought a post in the Utah House. The ultraconservative Eagle Forum launched a negative campaign, complete with fliers seeking Biskupski's defeat based on her sexual orientation.
"They attacked her for her 'illegal lifestyle,' " recalled Joe Hatch, a former chairman of the Salt Lake County Democratic Party. Nonetheless, she prevailed. "She ran an incredible campaign."
A larger challenge awaited on Capitol Hill. "Jackie Biskupski is the Jackie Robinson of the Utah Legislature," Hatch said, "taking all kinds of slurs and legislators who wouldn't even look at her."
But day by day and week by week, she worked through it in a collegial manner that won many over. She became an effective legislator, Hatch said.
"Jackie was able to do something many Democrats can't do," Hatch said of the Republican-dominated Legislature. "She developed that ability [to produce results] in that environment."
One of those conservative legislators whom Biskupski disarmed is Rep. Mike Noel, the Republican firebrand from Kanab.
"We were at the opposite ends of the [political] spectrum," Noel said. "But she was easy to get along with."
The pair found common ground talking about elk hunting, Noel said, noting that Biskupski's father had taken her hunting in Minnesota.
"She'll do a good job as mayor. She's very intelligent," he said. "I like the fact that she worked in law enforcement. It will be a stabilizing factor."
Sen. Jim Dabakis, D-Salt Lake City, who also is openly gay, sees Biskupski as breaking new ground for LGBT Utahns.
"Her real act of changing the culture was to be there and put her hand out to legislators," he said. "That was the first time they touched a lesbian."
It paved the way for others, Dabakis noted. "She did it with dignity despite some very harsh insults in the Legislature and in the community," he said. "I understand the pain she endured silently. She's very stoic."
Her tenure in the Capitol was tough at times, Biskupski concedes. "There were legislators who really struggled to work with me," she recalled. "But I'm pretty likable."
She reflected on her years in Hastings with parents who both ran their own businesses. As a teen, she always had a job of one kind or another.
"It's the work ethic I grew up with. I took that to Capitol Hill," she said. "I know hard work pays off."
Biskupski left the Legislature in 2011 to adopt a son, Archie. He is now 5.
Earlier this month, she announced her engagement to Betty Iverson, whom Biskupski has known for many years. Iverson has an 11-year-old son, Jack.
They make a multiracial family: Archie is African-American; Jack is from Guatemala.
"As a family, we are super excited," Biskupski said. "It's such a gift [for the boys] to get a sibling."
Biskupski was a staunch supporter of Ralph Becker for mayor eight years ago. It was about that time she took a job as a top administrator for Salt Lake County Sheriff Jim Winder. It appears now as though she was waiting in the wings for her chance to run for the top job at City Hall.
When Becker announced he would seek a third term, Biskupski was done waiting.
She prevailed in a hard-fought campaign. But some observers say she got off on the wrong foot at City Hall by asking for the resignations of at-will employees who are not protected by the merit system. Some 111 employees work at the pleasure of the mayor.
The sour mood at City Hall after Becker's defeat deepened into exasperation.
The mayor-elect will, no doubt, ask some of them to remain. Recently, she announced that Yolanda Francisco-Nez would remain as the coordinator of the Office of Diversity and Human Rights.
Apparently unfazed by the criticism, Biskupski said she approaches the mayor's post as a collaborator and problem solver who wants to maximize morale at City Hall.
"I want to make sure everyone who works there is respected, knows the work they do matters, and that they have the opportunity for advancement," she said. "And I want them to feel safe [from harassment and discrimination]."
Her new challenges will begin Monday at noon, when she is sworn into office. But no matter what she does in the next four years, Biskupski already has made a big impact, according to Dabakis and others.
"As we look at Utahns who changed the culture," Dabakis said, "Jackie is going to be very high on that list."
Biskupski timeline
1966 • Born in Hastings, Minn., Jan. 11
1984 • Graduated from Hastings High School
1988 • Earned a bachelor's degree from Arizona State University
1997 • Ran unsuccessful campaign for Salt Lake City Council
1998 • Won a seat in the Utah House of Representatives — served from 1999 to 2011
2015 • Elected mayor of Salt Lake City