U.S. Democratic Rep. Mike Michaud, serving the people of Maine in Congress since 2003, wants to become their next governor — to replace their Tea Party, anti-union, anti-women, extraordinarily antagonistic and petulant head of state. Ahead of the 2014 election, Michaud announced in August he was running. Today, in an op-ed published in one of the state’s top newspapers, Michaud made another announcement. The 58-year old third-generation Mainer says he is gay, and asks, “why should it matter?”
“I wasn’t surprised to learn about the whisper campaigns, insinuations and push-polls some of the people opposed to my candidacy have been using to raise questions about my personal life,” Michaud writes. “They want people to question whether I am gay.
Allow me to save them the trouble with a simple, honest answer: “Yes I am. But why should it matter?â€
Like many LGBT people, Michaud, who describes himself as “a third-generation mill worker or a lifelong Mainer,” notes being gay is “just a part of who I am.”
Whether I was punching a time clock at Great Northern Paper Company for 29 years, serving the people of Maine in the state Legislature, or fighting for our nation’s veterans on the Veterans’ Affairs Committee, my personal life has never factored into how I do my job.
Michaud, who says he’s currently ahead in the polls, if elected would become the nation’s first openly-gay governor.
He says he “was brought up believing you should judge a person based on the content of his or her character, not by their race, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation. That’s a value I know most Mainers share.”
Michaud received a 97 percent rating from HRC in 2011.
Maine’s current governor, Paul Lepage, made headlines as soon as he took office. Most of them haven’t been good.
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Image of Rep. Michaud via his Facebook page