MassLive recently asked readers to identify people who are leaders from the LGBTQ+ community throughout the state, working to make a difference in their own area of interest, be it politics, education, business or the arts.
Profiles of these leaders will be published through the rest of February. These are people our readers have identified as inspirational, who may be doing good acts for their communities. They are being recognized for their accomplishments, leadership and commitment to inspire change.
State Sen. Julian Cyr (courtesy photo)courtesy photo
Age: 38
Community: Lives in Truro, works statewide
His story: Julian Cyr, the four-term, elected state senator from the Cape and Islands District, represents 19 communities across most of Cape Cod, Nantucket, and Martha’s Vineyard.
He told MassLive he got his first taste of public service while he was a junior at Nauset Regional High School in Eastham, Mass.
The district faced budget cuts. And unless local voters passed an override to boost property taxes, some 40 teachers and staff — including Cyr’s beloved choir teacher — risked losing their jobs, he said.
“This is a very gay story,” he quipped. “I was a pretty bookish kid. I loved the choir. It was the best thing I did. So I led a group of students to run a campaign to convince the voters to approve the override. And we were successful.”
Cyr told MassLive the win was “the first time where I realized that I could step into my community and instigate change.” He pursued that interest while a student at New York University, where he got involved in LGTQ+ health issues, including an HIV testing program.
He graduated in 2008 after interning with the Clinton Global Initiative and the Obama White House. After college, he worked on the campaign of former Gov. Deval Patrick, and did a tour at the state Department of Public Health.
While he said he’d always seen himself as “more of a staffer,” Cyr nonetheless found himself pulled into electoral politics in 2016, when former state Sen. Daniel A. Wolf decided not to run for re-election, and the candidate widely viewed as his “heir apparent” opted against a run, he said.
Cyr, who was weighing going to graduate school, decided to throw his hat in the ring. He emerged victorious from a competitive, 3-way primary, and won the general election that year.
“I was a queer kid from the smallest town on Cape Cod,” he said. “And here I am.”
In His Words: “Go work with and for really good people. Sometimes the job and the opportunity that appears to be the most prestigious and looks best on the resume is not where you’ll learn the most. I think it’s important to be grounded in ‘the reality is bigger than you’ as the candidate or the individual. I could never have predicted or mapped out how my political career would have played out. So many of the conditions and factors determinative for success or coming up short in elected office are bigger than you … It helps me to have humility in this work. Have fun and not take yourself too seriously. And for LGBTQ folks … be authentic to who you are.”
We’re always open to hearing about more inspiring people. If you’d like to suggest someone else who should be recognized, please fill out this form.
