MAURA HEALEY
On January 21, 2015, Maura Healey was sworn in as Massachusetts´ attorney general and America´s first openly gay state AG. The Harvard-trained litigator is used to setting precedents-she was once a starting point guard for a professional women´s basketball team in Europe, despite being five feet four inches tall. Prior to her landmark election-culminating her first-ever run for public office-Healey was head of the Civil Rights Division and chief of the Public Protection and Business & Labor Bureaus in the attorney general´s office, where she led the state´s challenge to the Defense of Marriage Act. Healey has also shut down predatory lenders and worked with banks to restructure homeowners´ mortgages, preventing foreclosures. She also supports women´s unfettered access to reproductive healthcare, clean energy development, fighting the growing problem of opiate addiction in the state, and improving mental health care in the criminal justice system. “It´s a sign of progress here in the state that [being gay] wasn´t the first thing every time,” Healey told The Boston Globe, referring to her campaign and the attention it earned from the media. -KL
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