Saco legislator heads to White House to celebrate LGBT Pride Month

SACO – Rep. Justin Chenette has been invited by President Barack Obama to visit the White House next week to celebrate LGBT Pride Month.

“It is an immense honor to have been invited by the president to visit the White House for this important cause,” said Chenette, D-Saco. “I’m excited to represent and promote how accepting and welcoming our beautiful state is.”

This will be the seventh time since taking office that President Obama honors equal and human rights in the nation’s capital. National, state and local elected officials along with business leaders, grassroots activists, celebrities and others who have contributed personally or professionally towards the cause of equality were selected to attend.

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Chenette made history in 2012 when he was elected to the Maine Legislature, making him the youngest openly gay legislator in the country.

In 2013, he was named to The Advocate’s 40 Under 40 list of the most influential and accomplished LGBT leaders across the country as an “architect of the next decade.”

“We see attempts every year at rolling back hard-fought rights from marriage to being denied service because of who you love,” says Chenette. “I will continue to be a representative of all people as a legislator who happens to be gay, not a gay legislator.”

 Chenette, a member of the Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee, is serving his second term in the Maine Legislature and represents part of Saco.