BayWindows.com – Laura Kiritsy
When it comes to support for LGBT issues, the winner of the special election to succeed former state senator Jarrett Barrios, who vacated his Middlesex, Suffolk and Essex District seat in July, will have big shoes to fill. So who among the candidates is best suited to the task?
Barrios, the first openly gay man and first Latino ever elected to the Senate, was long a forceful advocate for the community, the most recent example of which was his leadership on the defeat of the anti-gay marriage amendment over the past three-plus years. ?Jarrett?s voice is probably not replaceable,? said longtime LGBT activist and Cambridge resident Sue Hyde. ?And I don?t expect anyone to be ? able to do what Jarrett did for us.? What she does expect, however, is that the district?s next senator ?will be as strong a leader and as strong an advocate and as forthright a supporter of LGBT people as he or she can be.?