Maine Gubernatorial Candidate: I'm Gay, So What?

Mike Michaud comes out with op-ed, saying, 'Yes, I am. But why should it matter?'
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 4, 2013 1:21 PM CST
Maine Gubernatorial Candidate: I'm Gay, So What?
In this May 21, 2010 file photo, U.S. Rep. Mike Michaud, D-Maine, speaks during the Maine Democratic Party Convention in Lewiston, Maine.   (AP Photo/Joel Page, File)

A Democratic candidate for Maine governor came out today, and the announcement is rippling across state boundaries. US Rep. Mike Michaud sent an op-ed to the AP, Portland Press Herald, and Bangor Daily News today, saying that he was responding to "whisper campaigns, insinuations, and push-polls" from his political foes. "They want people to question whether I am gay," he writes. "Allow me to save them the trouble with a simple, honest answer: 'Yes, I am. But why should it matter?'"

Michaud says he doesn't "plan to make my personal life or my opponents' personal lives issues in this campaign." But the Press-Herald notes that the announcement comes a day before Gov. Paul LePage's official re-election campaign kickoff, and came with strict embargo rules seemingly designed to draw media attention. Michaud has long assumed his sexuality was an open secret in Maine, sources close to him tell the paper. Michaud's campaign manager, Matt McTighe, ran the campaign to legalize same-sex marriage in Maine, which passed last year. Click for Michaud's full coming out column. (More Mike Michaud stories.)

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