Maine
Democrat Mike Michaud might become the country’s first openly gay governor. And
most voters there couldn’t care less.
2014 has
been a big year for gay and lesbian civil rights. Same-sex marriage was
enshrined into law in half a dozen states, and may be legalized in a half dozen
more by the time the year is out. Social conservatives are all but publicly admitting defeat.
But the
biggest story for the LGBT community is happening far outside of a court room,
and has nothing to do with wedding chapels. [Don't stop]
In the
state of Maine, Mike Michaud, a six-term Democratic congressman, is vying to
become the first openly gay governor in United States history. Yet in an era
when gay people come out of the closet at younger and younger ages, and when
politicians’ personal lives are considered part of the public domain, Michaud
did not reveal his sexual orientation until last November, at the age of 58.
Then, in an editorial he distributed to Maine’s three major print media
outlets, he said that he was coming out because he was leading in the polls,
and his opponents were engaging in a whisper campaign about his personal life.
“They
want people to question whether I am gay,” Michaud wrote. “Allow me to save
them the trouble with a simple, honest answer: ‘Yes I am. But why should it
matter?’”
Even a
few years ago, the prospect of electing the first openly gay chief executive
would have been a matter of major importance, with conservatives arguing that
it presaged moral ruin, and liberals marking it as major turning point in the
fight for equality.
But in
Maine, in 2014, the prospect of a gay governor is met mostly with a shrug.
“It is
totally irrelevant to the race,” said Sandy Maisel, a professor of government at Colby College, in Waterville, Maine.
No comments:
Post a Comment