Grace Ross

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**Grace Ross**

Born:	June 6, 1961
Residence:	Worcester, Massachusetts
Political Party:	Green-Rainbow

Grace Ross (Worcester, Massachusetts; born 6 June 1961) is a former Green-Rainbow Party co-chair and 2006 Green-Rainbow Party candidate for governor of Massachusetts.

Ross grew up in New York before coming to Massachusetts to attend Harvard University, where she obtained a BA in psychology and a master's degree in education. After this she became involved in the low-income community, and her primary activist work has been to address issues related to abolishing poverty. She has also worked on other causes "from nonviolence, the environment, and international solidarity to anti-racist struggles, women’s rights, union organizing and gay/lesbian civil rights".^[1]

In 2006 Ross became the first open lesbian to run for the post of governor of Massachusetts. She lost to Deval Patrick, receiving slightly more than 43,000 votes, about 2% of the total.

In December of 2006, Ross was named "Person of the Year" by the New England queer-oriented magazine, IN News Weekly.^[2]

1 Political Views
2 Controversies
3 See also
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Political Views

Ross or the Green-Rainbow Party hold the following political views, among others.^[3]

Opposes MCAS testing: "MCAS is a big part of why kids drop out of high school".
Supports "constitutional commitment to education -- 35 kids is too many".
Supports free education.
Supports decrease of global warming.
Believes that agriculture deserves more economic development attention.
Supports "voting rights for people, not monied interests".
Supports bringing Massachusetts troops home from foreign war zones.
Opposes tax rollbacks on the grounds they lead to property tax increases and disproportionately benefit the rich.
Supports progressive taxation.
Supports living wages and a guaranteed income for all.
Calls for a "secular, democratic governing entity" for Israel/Palestine.^[4]`

[edit] Controversies

Ross has been accused of antisemitism by radio talk show host Michael Graham, because of her and the Green-Rainbow Party's views on Israel, which include support for divestment.^[4]^[5]

John DePetro, a talk show host on WRKO in Boston, was fired on November 3, 2006, after calling Ross a "fat lesbian" on his talk show.^[6]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

^ Biography at Ross's website
^ Thomas Kilduff, Person of the Year: Grace Ross, IN News Weekly, 28 December 2006 (accessed 12 January 2007).
^ "Grace Ross on the Issues", OnTheIssues.org (accessed 6 November 2006).
^ ^a ^b "Green-Rainbow Party Statement on Palestine" (accessed 6 November 2006).
^ Michael Graham, "The REAL Grace Ross Controversy", The Natural Truth weblog, 3 November 2006 (accessed 6 November 2006).
^ Lisa Marie Pane, "Radio Host Fired Over Candidate Insult", Breitbart.com, 3 November 2006 (accessed 6 November 2006).