Scott Daniel McCoy (born August 19, 1970) is an American politician and attorney from

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, a ...

. A Democrat, he is a former member of the

Utah State Senate The Utah State Senate is the upper house of the Utah State Legislature, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Utah. The Utah Senate is composed of 29 elected members representing an equal number of senate districts. Each senate district is ...

, where he represented the state's 2nd senate district which comprises portions of

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the capital and most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in Utah. With a population of 200,133 in 2020, th ...

map
. He resigned from the senate in December 2009 to dedicate himself more fully to his legal career.

Early life and career

He was educated at

William Jewell College William Jewell College is a private liberal arts college in Liberty, Missouri. It was founded in 1849 by members of the Missouri Baptist Convention and endowed with $10,000 by William Jewell. It was associated with the Missouri Baptist Conven ...

Liberty, Missouri Liberty is a city in and the county seat of Clay County, Missouri, United States and is a suburb of Kansas City, located in the Kansas City Metropolitan Area. As of the 2020 United States Census the population was 30,167. Liberty is home to W ...

( B.A., 1992),

George Washington University , mottoeng = "God is Our Trust" , established = , type = Private federally chartered research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $2.8 billion (2022) , presi ...

in Washington, D.C. ( M.A., 1994) and the

Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law The Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law is the Law school in the United States, law school of Yeshiva University. Located in New York City and founded in 1976, the school is named for Supreme Court of the United States, Supreme Court Associate Just ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

( J.D., 2001). From January 2002 to March 2003, he served as

law clerk A law clerk or a judicial clerk is a person, generally someone who provides direct counsel and assistance to a lawyer or judge by researching issues and drafting legal opinions for cases before the court. Judicial clerks often play significant ...

to Justice Leonard H. Russon of the

Utah Supreme Court The Utah Supreme Court is the supreme court of the state of Utah, United States. It has final authority of interpretation of the Utah Constitution. The Utah Supreme Court is composed of five members: a chief justice, an associate chief justice, ...

. Scott was an associate at Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton from January 2001 to December 2001 before moving to Utah to clerk for Justice Russon. After finishing his clerkship he became a member of the Utah Bar and began practicing law at Bendinger, Crockett, Petersen, Greenwood and Casey, where he practiced commercial law with a focus on business litigation, antitrust, and federal securities. Scott was also active in the LGBT rights movement in Utah. He served as a member of the board of Equality Utah. Scott also served as a member of and as chair of the Salt Lake City Police Civilian Review Board. After leaving Utah in 2011, Scott returned to New York City to practice law at Cleary Gottlieb again from 2011 to 2014.

Senate career

McCoy was appointed to the seat by

Utah Democratic Party The Utah Democratic Party is the affiliate of the Democratic Party in the U.S. state of Utah. Its platform focuses on economic security, equal opportunity, the common good, and American leadership. The party also describes itself as a big tent par ...

delegates in February 2005, following the resignation of Senator Paula Julander on health grounds. He beat Julander's husband – longtime party leader Rod Julander – by 44 votes to 41 in the final selection vote. His appointment was then formalized by Governor Jon Huntsman, Jr. He ran for re-election in 2006 and faced little opposition in this reliably Democratic district, defeating his Republican opponent by more than two-to-one. McCoy, who lives with his husband Mark Barr, was Utah's first-ever openly gay state senator. He and Barr moved to

in June 2011, where they got married on July 24, 2011, the first day that same-sex marriages were legal in New York. In 2004, he led the Don't Amend Alliance, the statewide campaign against a proposed amendment to Utah's state constitution regarding eligibility for marriage. His re-election campaign won the support of the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund. McCoy was one of four Democratic legislative sponsors of the 2009 Common Ground Initiative, the most expansive legislative push for gay rights in state history. The drive, crafted in response to statements by the Salt Lake City-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which has indicated that it does not oppose some rights for same-sex couples, includes creating a statewide domestic-partner registry and protecting someone from being fired or evicted for being gay. McCoy's Common Ground bill would have amended state law so that financial dependents – besides spouses, parents and children – could sue if a breadwinner suffers a wrongful death. The measure would have benefited same-sex couples, but also other nontraditional households, such as one in which a grandmother relies on a grandson for financial support. It died early in the 2009 Legislature when it was voted down by the Senate judiciary committee, led by Republican Sen. Chris Buttars. McCoy is also known for his wry sense of humor. After Buttars, on hearing of McCoy's appointment to the senate, asked "Who, the gay?!", McCoy quickly ordered a vanity plate for his car that read "THEGAY".Photo on German-language gay news website
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Election results

References

External links

Map of Utah Senate District 2

Official Legislative Biography

Project Vote Smart Biography

2006 Follow the Money
* {{DEFAULTSORT:McCoy, Scott Living people Gay politicians LGBT state legislators in Utah Politicians from Salt Lake City Democratic Party Utah state senators William Jewell College alumni George Washington University alumni Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law alumni 1970 births 21st-century American politicians