Celebrity Friday: Roderick Ireland

MA Gov. Deval Patrick (left) with Chief Justice-designate Roderick L. Ireland

Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, the only Black governor in the country, has nominated Roderick Ireland to be the first Black Chief Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts. Patrick was re-elected to a second final term as Governor on Tuesday November 3rd, and announced the nomination of Ireland to replace retiring Chief Justice Margaret Marshall. Marshall is well-known for writing the 4-3 majority opinion in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health which ended the state's prohibition on same-sex couples from marrying, the first state Supreme Court to do so in the United States in 2003.

Ireland voted with the majority and Patrick is also a strong supporter of marriage equality and LGBT rights. His teenaged daughter came out as a lesbian while he was governor and he marched with her in a gay rights parade.

MA-GOV: Black vs. Gays, Part 42

Here we go again! In Massachusetts, Republican Charlie Baker is running for Governor against African-American incumbent Democrat Deval Patrick has chosen an openly gay running mate, Richard Tisei. Tisei is the State Senate Minority Leader and is a strong supporter of marriage for same-sex couples in the Bay state, where it has been legal since May 17, 2004. The Baker-Tisei ticket will be running against two very strong supporters of marriage in Patrick and Lieutenant Governor Timothy Murphy.

So, once again the Black community will be pitted against the gay community, although I suspect that for many in the gay and Black communities the choice in the Massachusetts governor's race will be clear: The Patrick-Murphy ticket.

Currently polling in Massachusetts gubernatorial race shows a tight three-way race between Democrat Patrick, Republican Baker and Independent Tim Cahill. Patrick's approval ratings are low, with 55 percent of respondents saying that they want a new Governor next year.

MA Gov Deval Patrick Speaks On Marriage Sun Aug 2

The Struggle for Marriage Equality:
What I’ve Learned on the Front Lines

Massachusetts Governor Deval L. Patrick

Sunday, August 2
2 p.m. to 4 p.m.

Home of Danny Gibson and Bill Weinberger
829 Keniston Avenue
Los Angeles

Sponsored by the Jordan/Rustin Coalition, Equality California Institute,
and the Liberty Hill Foundation

Optional contributions to the Jordan/Rustin Coalition encouraged

Dear Friend,

Please join us for a very special gathering Sunday August 2nd.

Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick will join us for reflections and discussion on the struggle for marriage equality for same-sex couples. From his first day in office, Governor Patrick put his personal reputation and political capital on the line to protect marriage equality. His leadership allowed Massachusetts to avert a referendum fight similar to the Proposition 8 battle.

As only the second African-American governor elected since Reconstruction, and as the Clinton Administration’s assistant attorney general for civil rights, Governor Patrick will offer his unique perspective on the subject.

Please RSVP to Milton Davis: Milton@eqca.org

Governor Deval Patrick—Biography

Hoping for the best and working for it, as his grandmother used to counsel him, Deval Patrick’s life has traced a trajectory from the South Side of Chicago to the U.S. Justice Department, Fortune 500 boardrooms, and now the Massachusetts State House, where he was elected Governor in 2006, one of only two African-Americans elected governor since Reconstruction.

Having grown up in poverty on the South Side of Chicago, Patrick was selected to attend boarding school at Milton Academy in Massachusetts, and then went on to Harvard, the first in his family to attend college. After spending a post-graduate year working on a United Nations youth training project in the Darfur region of Sudan, Patrick returned to Harvard where he earned his J.D. in the fall of 1979.

Following law school, Patrick served as a law clerk to a federal appellate judge before joining the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund and later the Boston law firm of Hill & Barlow. In 1994, President Clinton appointed Patrick Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, the nation's top civil rights post, where he worked on a wide range of issues, including prosecution of hate crimes and abortion clinic violence, and enforcement of employment discrimination, fair lending and disabilities rights laws. During his tenure, Patrick led the largest federal criminal investigation before September 11th, coordinating state, local and federal agencies to investigate church burnings throughout the South in the mid-1990s.

In 2001, Patrick joined The Coca-Cola Company as Executive Vice President and General Counsel. He was elected to the additional role of Corporate Secretary in 2002, and served as part of the company's senior leadership team as a member of the Executive Committee.

As governor, Deval Patrick has done more to advance equality for LGBT people than any other chief executive in the country. Immediately after his election, Governor Patrick expended tremendous political capital to persuade legislators to vote down a ballot initiative to undo marriage equality. Without his unwavering leadership, Massachusetts would have faced a referendum fight similar to the Proposition 8 battle.

In addition to marriage equality, Governor Patrick has been a pioneer on health care reform, ensuring Massachusetts’ lowest-in-the-nation rate of uninsured people. He also has championed clean energy laws; passed and implemented an historic Life Science Initiative; and extended the buffer zone to protect the safety of women seeking reproductive health services. Among the cadre of governors, Governor Patrick is one of President Barack Obama’s most trusted advisors and closest confidantes.

Diane and Deval Patrick have been married for over twenty-five years and have two adult daughters, Sarah and Katherine. In June of 2008, with her father by her side, Katherine—then 18—came out of the closet publicly. The next weekend, Deval, Diane and Katherine marched together in Boston Pride.

MA Passes Bill To Repeal Residency Requirement For Marriage

More good news! There will soon be two states in the United States where LGBT Americans (who live in states that have not passed Super-DOMAs) can travel to and get married.

The Massachusetts State House has just passed a bill by a vote of 118-35 that would repeal a 1913 law that restricted issuing Massachusetts marriage licences to couples whose marriage would be recognized in the state in which they resided. This was initially passed to reduce the number of interracial marriages and was enforced by former Massachusetts Governor (and possible Republican Vice Presidential candidate) Mitt Romney when the state opened up its marriages to same-sex couples on May 17, 2004.

Current Governor Deval Patrick (who has an openly lesbian teenaged daughter and has worked tirelessly to protect marriage equality in the state) has announced that he will happily sign the repeal measure into law.

Rea Carey, newly named Executive Director of The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force released a statement applauding the move:

“Massachusetts lawmakers wisely dismantled the barrier to same-sex couples from other states who wish to marry in the Commonwealth. We look forward to the signature of Governor Patrick on this legislation. The 1913 law, a shameful vestige from another wrong-headed time of denying marriage to interracial couples, became Gov. Mitt Romney’s archaic tool in his unsuccessful bid to deny the freedom to marry to same-sex couples. Not only does today’s House vote repudiate Romney’s efforts to block our marriages in Massachusetts, it also invites couples from around the United States to experience the joy and happiness of celebrating their lives by becoming married in the Bay State.

“We applaud MassEquality, Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, and the many others who worked so long and hard to achieve and protect marriage equality in Massachusetts.”

MA Poised To Open Marriage To Out-Of-State Gay Couples

Joe.My.God has the goods on a story about legislative action that would repeal a Massachusetts law that bans people from marrying in that state if that marriage would not be accepted in the state in which they live. The 1913 law was initially passed to prevent interracial couples from marrying in Massachusetts and going back to other states which prohibited the practice.

The law was largely unnoticed until then-Governor Mitt Romney publicized its existence following the legalization of same-sex marriage on May 17, 2004.

Current Governor Deval Patrick (whose lesbian daughter Katherine recently came out publicly and was warmly embraced by her family) has said that he will gladly sign the repeal legislation when it reaches his desk.