Portrait
Maura Healey
Born
8 February 1971Bethesda, Maryland, USA
Politician, Governor of MassachusettsUnited States55th birthday

Maura Healey

A former professional basketball player who fought the Defense of Marriage Act in court – and became one of the first openly lesbian US governors.

Maura Healey grew up in New Hampshire, the eldest of five children. At Harvard she captained the basketball team, and afterwards played professionally in Austria for two years. She then studied law and worked as a lawyer in Boston.

In 2007 she joined the office of the Massachusetts attorney general. As head of the civil rights division she led the state’s lawsuit against the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which did not recognise same-sex marriages – the first state challenge to the law, which the Supreme Court later struck down.

In 2014 she was elected attorney general of Massachusetts, becoming the first openly lesbian woman elected attorney general of any US state. In this role she took on opioid manufacturers, banks and polluters. In 2022 she was elected governor of Massachusetts – the first woman elected to the office and, together with Tina Kotek in Oregon, one of the first two openly lesbian governors in the United States.

She took office in January 2023. Her partner is the lawyer Joanna Lydgate.

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