Maura has deep roots in Massachusetts. Her parents both grew up in Newburyport. Her maternal grandparents met in Gloucester, where her grandfather worked on the fishing docks and her grandmother, whose ancestors settled on the Parker River in Newbury in 1636, went to nursing school. Her paternal grandparents came from Ireland and worked as a domestic worker and a janitor.
Maura was born at the Bethesda Naval Hospital in 1971 while her father served as a captain in the U.S. Public Health Service, and later as a civil engineer in the Environmental Protection Agency. Her maternal grandmother was determined that her grandchild be born on Massachusetts soil. She traveled through a snowstorm down Route 1, flew to Maryland, snuck into the delivery room wearing her nursing outfit, and placed a bag of soil from a family woodlot in Byfield below the delivery bed so that Maura could be “born” over Massachusetts. What mothers and grandmothers will do!
Maura is a longtime advocate for LGBTQ+ rights. She will be a Governor who stands up for LGBTQ+ youth.
Maura has proudly served as the first openly gay Attorney General in the country. She’s seen her role as a way to open doors for future LGBTQ+ leaders and show young people what’s possible for them. Now, she’s running to be the first lesbian Governor in the country at a time when politicians across the country are launching heartless attacks on LGBTQ+ youth.
Maura’s message to the LGBTQ+ community, particularly young people, is that they are loved and that she will fight for them. That’s what she has done throughout her career. She brought the first successful challenge to DOMA when she was Civil Rights Chief in the Attorney General’s Office, helping to lay the groundwork for marriage equality nationwide. As AG, she championed non-discrimination protections for trans people in Massachusetts, pushed for gender neutral markers on a state and federal level, and stood up to the Trump administration’s numerous attacks on the LGBTQ+ community – from undermining anti-discrimination protections in health care, to rolling back protections for transgender students in schools, to banning transgender individuals in the military, and much more.
As Governor, Maura will continue to stand up to efforts to infringe on LGBTQ+ rights and work to ensure that everyone in Massachusetts can live a happy, healthy, authentic life. That includes: