EASTHAMPTON – Joseph McCoy announced that he will not seek re-election after serving on the Easthampton City Council since 2006.
McCoy, the council’s president, told the Gazette on Friday that “it’s time to look at other things in life.”
“I’m not going to disappear,” he said. “I’ll be more involved in statewide and national issues, and more at the volunteer board and committee level than elected office.”
First elected in the fall of 2005 as an at-large councilor, McCoy served as vice president of the council for four years and has been its president for the past eight years.
In 2004, McCoy said that he had become more politically motivated and involved since getting married 15 years ago.
In November 2003, the state Supreme Judicial Court ruled that the state’s exclusion of same-sex couples from marriage laws was unconstitutional, and McCoy married his husband, Stan McCoy, in May 2004 shortly after the law took effect. McCoy became one of the first legally married gay men to serve in elected office in the state.
Around the time of his marriage, McCoy began advocating for same-sex marriage equality rights with the coalition MassEquality. He served as the western Massachusetts coordinator for the state organization, and he said that experience is what inspired him to run for City Council.
If it had not been for his experience advocating for legal same-sex marriage in Massachusetts with MassEquality, McCoy said: “I don’t think I would have run.”
In 2011, the council passed an ordinance that McCoy introduced which declared that city officials do not condone or tolerate any form of discrimination.
“It re-affirmed where we stood on discrimination, and it’s expanded to gender identity and immigration status,” McCoy said.
In 2015, the council approved a zoning measure which limited the size of retail buildings, capping the size of a building with a single retailer at 50,000 square feet. City officials said at the time the change would help ensure that the city’s economic base remains downtown. McCoy said that the ordinance helped the city’s small businesses remain competitive and grow.
McCoy, a veterinarian, runs Sage Meadow Farm in Easthampton with his husband, making goat milk soaps that are sold at local grocery stores, farmers markets and craft fairs. He has lived in the city for 19 years.
As for his future, McCoy said he plans on spending more time with his husband, enjoying his goats and indulging in one of his favorite activities: pickleball.