Joseph Grabarz | |
---|---|
Member of the ConnecticutHouseofRepresentatives from the 128th district | |
In office January 4, 1989 –January 6, 1993 | |
Preceded by | Mario Testa |
Succeeded by | Edna I. García |
Personal details | |
Born | 1956 |
Political party | Democratic |
Joseph Grabarz is a former American politician,who served in the Connecticut House of Representatives from 1989 to 1993. He is most noted for being Connecticut's first state legislator ever to come out as gay. [1]
Prior to his election to the legislature,Grabarz worked as an assistant in the office of Bridgeport mayor Thomas W. Bucci. [2] He won the Democratic primary in 1988 over Mario Testa,Bucci's cousin, [3] and won the election in November.
On December 17,1990,Grabarz came out as gay at a press conference. [4] He had already been out in his personal life for a number of years,but realized that even some of his colleagues in the legislature didn't know that he was gay after a Republican legislator questioned the need for a gay rights bill on the grounds that he had never met a gay person. [4] Following his speech,while hugging and thanking well-wishers who had attended the event,he gave a kiss to his friend Greg Campora,and a photograph of that kiss accompanied most media coverage of his announcement. [1] Although he received some negative reaction,his coming out was credited with helping to secure passage of a bill outlawing discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in Connecticut. [1]
Following the end of his term in office,he took a job as legislative director with the Human Rights Campaign. [5] He was later named executive director of the Connecticut Civil Liberties Union in 1995. [6]
Lowell Palmer Weicker Jr. was an American politician who served as a U.S. Representative,U.S. Senator,and the 85th Governor of Connecticut.
Mary Carolyn "Jodi" Rell is an American former politician who served as the 87th governor of Connecticut from 2004 to 2011. Rell also served as the state's 105th lieutenant governor of Connecticut from 1995 to 2004 under Governor John G. Rowland,and became governor after Rowland resigned from office. To date,Rell is the last Republican and last woman to officially serve as Governor of Connecticut.
Eunice Groark was an American politician who was the first woman elected lieutenant governor of Connecticut in 1990. Groark ran on the ticket of A Connecticut Party (ACP) with Lowell Weicker,winning the election with 41% of the vote. After Weicker declined to run for a second term,Groark ran for governor on the A Connecticut Party ticket but lost the election to Republican candidate John G. Rowland.
Susan Bysiewicz is an American politician and attorney who has served as the 109th lieutenant governor of Connecticut since 2019. She previously served as the 72nd secretary of the state of Connecticut from 1999 to 2011 and a member of the Connecticut House of Representatives from 1993 to 1999.
Dannel Patrick Malloy is an American politician who served as the 88th governor of Connecticut from 2011 to 2019. A member of the Democratic Party,he chaired the Democratic Governors Association from 2016 to 2017. In July 2019,he began his tenure as the Chancellor of the University of Maine System.
Elizabeth Bye is an American politician from Connecticut. A Democrat,she is the commissioner of the state's Office of Early Childhood. She served as a member of the Connecticut State Senate from 2011 to 2019,representing the 5th district,which includes part of Bloomfield,most of Farmington,all of Burlington and all of West Hartford. Bye also served two terms in the Connecticut House of Representatives from 2007 to 2011.
Andrew J. McDonald is an American judge and former politician from Connecticut. He has served as an associate justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court since 2013. He became acting chief justice in September 2024,after the retirement of then-Chief Justice Richard A. Robinson.
Richard Nelson "Oz" Griebel was an American banker,lawyer,and political candidate. He ran as a Republican primary candidate in the 2010 Connecticut gubernatorial election,and as an independent in the 2018 gubernatorial election.
Joseph Peter Ganim is an American Democratic politician and former attorney who is the mayor of Bridgeport,Connecticut. He was elected mayor of the city six times,serving from 1991 to 2003,when he resigned after being convicted on federal felony corruption charges. In 2015,Ganim mounted a successful political comeback and was again elected Bridgeport mayor. Ganim was sworn in as mayor on December 1,2015. Ganim has twice unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination for governor of Connecticut,running in 1994 and 2018.
William A. Petit Jr. is an American former physician and politician. A Republican,he represented District 22 in the Connecticut House of Representatives from 2017 to 2023. A former physician,he was the sole survivor of the 2007 Cheshire home invasion,in which his wife and two daughters were murdered.
Calvin Bruce Anderson was an American military officer and politician who served as a member of the Washington State Senate,representing the 43rd district in 1995. A member of the Democratic Party,he previously served as a member of the Washington House of Representatives from 1987 to 1995,and was the first openly gay member of the Washington State Legislature.
Thomas William Bucci is an American lawyer and former mayor of Bridgeport,Connecticut. A member of the Democratic Party,Bucci ran in 1985 and defeated incumbent mayor Leonard S. Paoletta flipping Bridgeport's leadership from Republican to Democratic. Bucci served two terms in office until he was defeated and succeeded by Mary C. Moran thus returning Bridgeport back to Republican leadership.
Ernest E. Newton II is an American politician in Bridgeport,Connecticut. Newton served for seventeen years in the Connecticut General Assembly,serving in the Connecticut House of Representatives from 1988 to 2003 and in the Connecticut State Senate from 2003 to 2006. He pleaded guilty to federal felony corruption charges in September 2005 and served several years in federal prison. Newton was released in February 2010 and in 2012 unsuccessfully attempted a political comeback,losing in the primary in a race for his old state Senate seat. He pleaded guilty to three campaign finance violations in 2019,relating to his 2012 legislative campaign.
Anne Stanback is an American activist for LGBT rights and same-sex marriage.
Thomas Scott is an American politician,radio talk show host,and realtor.
Elections are currently held every four years to elect the mayor of Hartford,Connecticut.
Robert M. Ward was an American politician who served in the Connecticut House of Representatives from 1984 to 2007,and as the minority leader from 1995 to 2007,as a member of the Republican Party. He was the longest-serving caucus leader in the state legislature in Connecticut's history.
Addo E. Bonetti was an American politician and Marine who served in the Connecticut House of Representatives from the 175th and 65th districts from 1967 to 1979,as a member of the Democratic Party. Prior to his political career he had served in the United States Marine Corps during World War II.
Pauline Ryder Kezer is an American politician who served as Secretary of the State of Connecticut from 1991 to 1995. She previously served in the Connecticut General Assembly. Since August 2014 she has served as president of the Alden Kindred of America,which owns and operates the John and Priscilla Alden Family Sites.