Mike Michaud: Yes, I am gay. ‘But why should it matter?’

[cali]

15. An awfully good editiorial from the Bangor Daily News about this

Mike Michaud is gay. Welcome this truth and move on

There’s nothing easy about telling the world you’re gay. Even now, with 50 percent of people nationwide saying they favor allowing gays and lesbians to marry. Even after the legalization of same-sex marriage in Maine. Discrimination, even hate, still exists.

So U.S. Rep. Mike Michaud’s announcement Monday that he is gay is brave. It takes courage to share something so personal.

At the same time, Michaud, who is running for governor, was correct to ask in an OpEd published Monday by the Bangor Daily News, Portland Press Herald and The Associated Press, “Why should it matter?” For him, he wrote, “It’s just a part of who I am, as much as being a third-generation millworker or a lifelong Mainer.”

We urge people to welcome this truth and move on.

Michaud’s announcement should not — and likely won’t — change anything about how the six-term congressman, former state Senate president and 11-term former state lawmaker makes his case to voters about why he should be Maine’s next governor. And it shouldn’t change anything about the case his opponents make about why they should occupy the Blaine House for the next four years.

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http://bangordailynews.com/2013/11/04/opinion/editorials/mike-michaud-is-gay-welcome-this-truth-and-move-on/?ref=relatedSidebar