The man credited as the first openly gay lawmaker in the country elected to statewide office has died.
Ed Flanagan, a former Vermont auditor of accounts and state senator, was 66.
Vermont Democratic State Rep. Mary Sullivan said she had planned to visit Flanagan on Friday but arrived shortly after his death. He died at a nursing home in New Hampshire.
Flanagan suffered a traumatic brain injury in a 2005 car crash that left him in a coma for several weeks. Sullivan said Flanagan's declining health in recent years was a result of those injuries.
Flanagan was first elected Vermont auditor of accounts in 1992. He came out as gay in 1995 and was re-elected twice. He was later elected to the state Senate.
Copyright AP - Associated Press
