1. Jirair Ratevosian was born in 1980 in Hollywood, Los Angeles, to a Lebanese mother and Armenian father.
17 Facts About Jirair Ratevosian
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Jirair Ratevosian's mother was born and raised in Lebanon until immigrating to the United States in 1976 due to the Lebanese Civil War.
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Jirair Ratevosian's father was born in Siberia as a result of his paternal grandfather being sent there due to his anti-communist activism in the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic.
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Jirair Ratevosian was named after his paternal grandfather, Jirair, who was a shoe cobbler, community organizer, and small business owner.
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Jirair Ratevosian's mother worked at McDonald's and his father was a banker.
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Jirair Ratevosian earned a bachelor's degree in physiology and political science at the University of California, Los Angeles in 2003.
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Jirair Ratevosian completed a two-year medical postbaccalaureate program through University of California, San Francisco.
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Jirair Ratevosian worked as a national field organizer for the health action AIDS campaign of the Physicians for Human Rights.
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Jirair Ratevosian later became the deputy director of public policy of amfAR and worked on its syringe access programs.
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In May 2011, Jirair Ratevosian joined the office of US representative Barbara Lee as a legislative director.
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Jirair Ratevosian led budget, appropriations, and the reauthorization of President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief in 2013.
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In that role, Jirair Ratevosian assisted Nkengasong with strategic planning, hiring, policy development, and other front office management issues.
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In 2023, Jirair Ratevosian earned a DrPH with a concentration in public healthy policy at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
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Jirair Ratevosian was a Democratic candidate in the 2024 California's 30th congressional district election.
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Jirair Ratevosian has noted that some in Los Angeles' Armenian community were unhappy about his being an openly gay Armenian.
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Jirair Ratevosian has proposed an American Dream Act which contains aspects of Medicare for All, a Green New Deal, and canceling student debt.
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Jirair Ratevosian is pro-LGBTQ+ and has proposed a Gay Agenda for Congress to protect the rights of LGBTQ+ individuals.