Bay Windows - April 19, 2007

"This was not in the plans, and yet it's really exciting. I'm very hopeful about and committed to making sure this is a successful administration, and I like the idea that I can contribute to that directly," McGuire said. McGuire is the Patrick administration's second major openly gay appointment under the Executive Office of Health and Human Services (EOHHS), following last month's appointment of John Auerbach as commissioner of DPH.

While many in the LGBT community are most familiar with her work around HIV/AIDS issues, McGuire is a longtime veteran in the disability field who helped develop some of the most important federal policies around both disability and HIV/AIDS. She got her start working as a special education teacher, and she said that work inspired her to look at how people with disabilities interact with the world around them.

"Working in special education with adolescents that had disabilities was actually a great place to start because it made me confront the reality that people with disabilities have to interact with the larger social world, and that wasn't a really hospitable world for them," said McGuire.

During the 80s McGuire worked for a number of non-profit organizations and for-profit companies in the disability field, and throughout that period she also became an advocate around disability public policy issues. She helped draft the 1988 amendments to the Fair Housing Act that, for the first time, covered people with disabilities in federal non-discrimination protections.

In the late 80s McGuire moved into the HIV/AIDS field, heading up the Washington, D.C.-based AIDS Action Council. She said in the early days of the epidemic many of the people involved in developing public policy around HIV/AIDS came from the disability world, and there was a fair amount of crossover between the two fields.

That was particularly true during the development of the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act. McGuire was involved in crafting the language in the ADA related to HIV/AIDS, and she made sure that people with HIV/AIDS were covered under the legislation. She also worked on parts of the ADA focusing on other disability issues, including telecommunications, transportation and public accommodations. McGuire also helped develop the Ryan White Care Act, the legislation providing the states with the bulk of their federal HIV/AIDS funding.

During the early 90s, while studying at the Harvard School of Public Health, McGuire worked as a consultant on disability and HIV/AIDS issues, including for DPH's HIV/AIDS Bureau. In 1998 she was hired to head up the bureau, a post she held until 2003. During that time, serving under the administrations of Govs. Paul Cellucci, Jane Swift and Romney, McGuire felt comfortable working in DPH as an openly gay official, and she said because she was out she was considered one of the go-to people on LGBT issues in DPH, even issues not directly related to HIV/AIDS.

Yet she said there were notable exceptions where DPH's embrace of her as an out official had limits. She said while DPH consulted with her on virtually every LGBT-related issue facing the department, they kept her out of the loop when responding to Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders's (GLAD) ultimately successful suit against DPH demanding that same-sex couples have the right to marry. She said she found the brief prepared by former Attorney General Tom Reilly's office in response to the suit "reprehensible," particularly for its arguments that the daughters of lesbian parents were more likely to be promiscuous and other controversial statements about same-sex couples and LGBT parents. She said after learning about the brief she confronted DPH's general counsel and told him, "So every other gay issue gets brought to me except this?"

She also said the science behind the arguments in the brief was problematic enough from a public health standpoint that it should have been challenged before being included in the brief.

"It's truly something that from a public health perspective should have been challenged ... For me it was impossible not to see that as a way in which there wasn't a fully incorporated sense of what it meant to be gay and lesbian and how that was important to our public health endeavor and how our senior leadership in that should have been acknowledged," said McGuire.

By contrast, McGuire said that Gov. Patrick and Bigby not only support her as an out official but understand the importance of having LGBT people in positions of leadership.

"It's a new administration even in terms of embracing and acknowledging the leadership of gay and lesbian people, and I'm very much in the post because of my historical knowledge and capacity and skill, but I'm also honored to be a very senior out lesbian appointee and to know that the secretary knows me and knows my partner and is incredibly supportive and knows that it's important to have people who are visibly out and who carry that perspective in the different jobs they do."

She also said the Patrick administration's commitment to transparency in government was another factor that persuaded her to return to state government.

"The first and most important thing to me is in his campaign and even his acceptance speech Patrick's valuing of a notion of transparency in terms of, how does government do its work, and how does it engage people," said McGuire. She said the lack of transparency under Romney was a large part of what prompted her to leave DPH.

In her new post, which she starts May 1, she will oversee the Department of Mental Retardation, the Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission, the Massachusetts Commission for the Blind, the Massachusetts Commission for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, the Chelsea Soldiers' Home and the Holyoke Soldiers' Home. She also hopes to look at broader public policy issues around disability that go beyond the scope of any one state agency. One area she plans to focus on is looking at the disability-related issues and needs facing soldiers returning home to Massachusetts. She also hopes to look at the issues facing the workforce as more and more people continue to work later in life and become less able-bodied. McGuire said she brings to the job "a sense of a lifespan approach, looking at ability and disability across the lifespan."

070419
BY070403

Always watch for outdated information. This article first appeared in 2007. This material is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between you and your doctor.

AEGiS presents published material, reprinted with permission and neither endorses nor opposes any material. All information contained on this website, including information relating to health conditions, products, and treatments, is for informational purposes only. It is often presented in summary or aggregate form. It is not meant to be a substitute for the advice provided by your own physician or other medical professionals. Always discuss treatment options with a doctor who specializes in treating HIV.

Copyright ©1980, 2007. AEGiS. All materials appearing on AEGiS are protected by copyright as a collective work or compilation under U.S. copyright and other laws and are the property of AEGiS, or the party credited as the provider of the content. .