[statecom-discuss] Grace Ross Named IN NewsWeekly's "Person of the Year"

[Colby Peterson]

Dear friends,

We are pleased to announce that 2006 Green-Rainbow Party candidate  
for governor, Grace Ross, has been named IN NewsWeekly's "Person of  
the Year." IN NewsWeekly is New England's "Largest GLBT Newspaper,"  
and is distributed in all 6 New England States, with millions of  
readers in print and on-line at InNewsWeekly.com. The article is  
being reproduced here, but can be read on-line at:

http://www.innewsweekly.com/innews/?class_code=Ne&article_code=3227

OR

http://tinyurl.com/yldmed

If you can spare a couple minutes, we encourage you to visit the  
article's page and click "Respond to the Editor" and thank them for  
choosing the candidate this year that truly represented progress in  
our society on all levels- Grace Ross.

Thank you for your continued support!

Sincerely,
  Colby E. Peterson, Communications Director, Green-Rainbow Party


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Grace Ross
Person of the Year: Grace Ross
by Thomas E. Kilduff
December 28, 2006

On Friday, December 1, Green/Rainbow party candidate whisked into a  
Beacon Hill cafí, clad in a blue ensemble and wrapped in one of her  
signature scarves. Her life since her uphill gubernatorial run, in  
which she garnered two percent of the Bay State vote, is "definitely  
slower," but to any apolitical earthling, still dizzyingly chaotic.

"After this I am attending a Massachusetts Climate Action Network  
meeting, a Rosa Parks Rally in Worcester, a World AIDS talk at  
Emerson, a CityLife Annual Meeting and a Harvard Gay and Lesbian  
alumni holiday party," she said.

Ross is flush with her local celebrity status and during the course  
of our conversation, a woman gave her the thumbs-up through the cafí  
window.

"The universal respect thing out there is a kind of power of its  
own," Ross said, adding, "Patrick got the office and I got mine,  
which was an understanding of how I can best create change."

This out and open lesbian is one of the best-known queer people in  
the state.  In Newsweekly chose Grace Ross for woman of the year. She  
brought thoughtful, reflective answers to questions on a campaign  
trail that was for her thoughtful answers and well-researched answers  
on the campaign trail. Also in times of turbulence throughout the  
campaign, Ross really was grace under fire.

To start, her lieutenant governor candidate, Wendy Van Horne, dropped  
out of the race in late August, and was replaced by Martina Robinson.  
The ticket seemed to be on fickle ground. Ross was also at a  
formidable disadvantage with her finances. She had told In Newsweekly  
in July of 2006 that "I haven't raised a lot of money, it's somewhere  
in the thousands."

But the event that garnered the most media attention was her graceful  
response to the late-campaign playground insults by WRKO shock jock,  
John DiPietro, who poked fun at her weight and her sexuality.  
DiPietro was quickly fired for his comments.

"DiPietro called me personally the night of the insult and  
apologized," Ross said, "I found the insult generally offensive, like  
a kid on the playing field. But the real apology should be for all  
gay and lesbian folks and anyone who has decent values." She called  
his firing a turning point for Massachusetts.

And then there are the kudos due for her behavior in one of the  
dirtiest campaigns in state history.

"We're always told that the end of a campaign involves mudslinging,  
but I stepped in and turned things around by pulling Healey and  
Patrick out of the mud and there's quite a general consensus that  
agrees with this."

For her future, Ross is coy, but alludes to a possible Worcester (her  
hometown) city council run. •


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