Cambridge, Massachusetts Mayor David
Maher publicly announced over the weekend that he's gay, but added
that the news should not surprise anyone.
Maher spoke about his sexual
orientation for the first time during the city's 20th annual gay
pride brunch.
In his speech, the 51-year-old mayor
said he was proud to be the third consecutive openly gay mayor in
Cambridge.
“In the early 1990s my city council
colleague Ken Reeves came out as the first openly gay mayor of
Cambridge – since that time Denise Simmons and I have both had the
privilege and honor of serving as mayor,” Maher told a gathering of
about a dozen Saturday.
Last year, Simmons
made headlines when she married her longtime partner Mattie B. Hayes
in a predominantly African-American church, a historic first.
Maher told the Cambridge Chronicle
that he's never hidden the fact that he's gay, but instead has “tried
very hard to separate my public life from my private life.”
The paper reported that the mayor has
been in a committed relationship for more than 30 years.