Deval Patrick Brings Mostly Positive LGBTQ Record to Presidential Bid

Former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, the latest entrant in the Democratic presidential race, is the father of a lesbian daughter and brings a generally LGBTQ-supportive record to his run -- with some caveats.

Patrick announced his candidacy Thursday in a YouTube video and in an appearance on CBS This Morning. He emphasized his rise from humble beginnings -- growing up in a poor family on the south side of Chicago -- and sought to provide a contrast between himself and other Democratic hopefuls.

"We seem to be migrating to, on the one camp, sort of nostalgia -- let's just get rid, if you will, of the incumbent president and we can go back to doing what we used to do," he said on CBS This Morning. "Or it's our way, our big idea, or no way. ... Neither of those, it seems to me, seizes the moment to pull the nation together and bring some humility."

The "nostalgia" comment appeared to be aimed at former Vice President Joe Biden, The New York Times notes, while the "big idea" one was a shot at Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, who have positioned themselves to the left of Biden. Ideologically, he staked out centrist positions similar to Biden's -- for instance, saying he doesn't support Medicare for all, as Warren and Sanders do, but a public option for health insurance, which Biden is backing.

Patrick was governor of Massachusetts from 2007 to 2015. In his first year in office, he persuaded Massachusetts legislators to vote down a state constitutional amendment that would have banned same-sex marriage there. The amendment, if approved by lawmakers and then voters, would have overridden the court decision that had made Massachusetts the first state in the nation with marriage equality in 2004.

In 2008 his daughter Katherine, then 18, came out publicly as lesbian in an interview with the Massachusetts LGBTQ publication Bay Windows. She had already come out to her parents. "I'll always remember the first thing my dad did was, [he] wrapped me in a bear hug and said, 'Well, we love you no matter what,'" she said in the interview.

Patrick appeared frequently at LGBTQ events as governor. In 2014 he and Boston Mayor Marty Walsh led the city's annual Pride parade. In 2012 he campaigned heavily for President Barack Obama's reelection at venues around the nation, including the Empire State Pride Agenda's annual dinner in New York City. Obama's Republican opponent that year was Mitt Romney, who had preceded Patrick as Massachusetts governor. Obama and Romney offered "two very different visions for our country," Patrick told the dinner's attendees, noting that Romney had tried to "frustrate marriage equality" in Massachusetts.

Also in 2012, however, Patrick denounced a federal judge's ruling that the state must provide gender-confirmation surgery for a transgender prison inmate, convicted murderer Michelle Kosilek. The state appealed the ruling and it was overturned, and Kosilek is still seeking the surgery. This was the same case that led Elizabeth Warren, then in her first campaign for U.S. senator from Massachusetts, to say such surgery for inmates was not a good use of taxpayer money.

Warren this year issued a statement saying she now supports access to gender-affirming procedures for all trans people, including those who are incarcerated. Another Democratic presidential hopeful, Sen. Kamala Harris, had fought in court against providing these procedures for inmates when she was California's attorney general. Harris has said she was duty-bound to represent the state but disagreed with the policy that prohibited such medical care, and she worked behind the scenes to change it.

There's no word yet on whether Patrick has changed his mind on treatment for inmates, but in 2014 he did approve a new state policy that required private insurers in Massachusetts to cover gender-transition procedures and assured that MassHealth, the state-run insurance program, would cover them as well.

Patrick did not bring up LGBTQ issues in his video, nor is the topic listed on his website, which doesn't go into great detail on many matters. However, his site does allow users to submit information on the issues that matter to them.

Patrick filed paperwork Thursday to run in New Hampshire's primary, to be held February 11, the Times reports. He also has trips planned to Iowa, which will hold its presidential caucus February 3, and the early-primary states of California, Nevada, and South Carolina, a source told the paper.