It is an endearing photo.
It is of Gov. Maura Healey and First Partner Joanna Lydgate taken at the State House on Monday.
Lydgate has her arm around the shorter Healey’s waist in the Boston Herald photo. The pair are taking in the murals that overlook Nurses Hall and the marble Grand Staircase that descends into it.
The photo op was part of a tour of the historic building that included stops in Doric Hall, the Great Hall, the State Library and both the House and Senate chambers.
It was conducted by Lynn Grilli of the Doric Docent Tour Guides, an organization that once, back in the swinging days of Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin, was called the Doric Dames.
Healey, at the start of Pride Month, later was scheduled to swear Lydgate in as honorary president of the organization.
Healey, 51, the state’s first openly gay governor, lives with Lydgate, 42, and her two children in Lydgate’s home in Arlington.
Lydgate once worked for Healey as chief deputy, when Healey was attorney general. She is the second Healey partner to be named to a state position, albeit an honorary one in Lydgate’s case
Healey in February appointed the well qualified former Appeals Court Judge Gabrielle Wolohojian, her former romantic partner, to the state Supreme Judicial Court. Healey had shared a Charlestown home with Wolohojian for several years before they separated.
While there are no plans for Healey and Lydgate to marry, they could not have found a better place for a same sex marriage than at the historic Bulfinch State House.
Massachusetts in 2004 became the first state in the nation to legalize same sex marriage, the 20th anniversary of which was observed May 17.
In fact, as they toured the building, Healy and Lydgate could have beam mistaken for a happy couple searching for a warm and welcoming venue to hold such a ceremony.
The historic ornate Bulfinch-designed Senate Reading Room across from the Senate Chamber would be the perfect spot. While Healey would not be the first person to be married at the State House, she would be the first governor to do so, as well as the first gay governor to boot.
The Senate Reading Room is where the first State House marriage took place. That was back in 1971 when my friend, the late Dick Flavin of Quincy, one time television reporter, Boston Mayor Kevin White press secretary and Red Sox public address announcer and poet, somehow arraigned to be married there.
In fact, Kevin White presided while the champagne flowed, and a string quartet played softly in the background.
To this day I don’t know how Flavin pulled it off, but he did. And he wasn’t even the governor.
Given the times we live in, the Flavin marriage would be a tough act to follow even for a governor and a rent-free room.
This is especially true when Healey is criticized for spending a measly $30,000 out of a $55 billion budget on her trip, with aides, to a Rome climate conference and a meeting with Pope Francis.
In addition, Healy is going through a rough patch dealing with the nagging problems of housing and caring for the endless influx of illegal immigrants, in addition to the daily problems of governing during divisive times.
Her tour of the State House with Lydgate, for instance, came between a Globe story on the state’s failure to inspect roach- and mouse-infested hotels housing illegal immigrants, and a Herald story about unnamed immigrants being kicked out of hotels for “inappropriate actions.”
Healey and the public need a diversion and some happy news.
What better than a same sex State House wedding?
Peter Lucas is a veteran political reporter. Email him at: peter.lucas@bostonherald.com
