Ryan Michael Fecteau (born September 18, 1992) is an American politician who served as the Speaker of the Maine House of Representatives. A Democrat, Fecteau serves Maine House District 11, consisting of a portion of Biddeford. At the time of his election as Speaker of the House in December 2020, Fecteau was both the youngest active state Speaker in the United States and the first openly gay person to serve as Speaker of the Maine House.

Fecteau was born and raised in Biddeford, Maine and graduated from Biddeford High School. He attended the Catholic University of America where he was active in student government and LGBTQ+ advocacy. He was first elected to Maine House District 11 in 2014 when he was 21 years old and was re-elected in 2016, 2018 and 2020. In November 2018, Fecteau was elected Assistant Majority Leader of the Maine House, and in December 2020 he was elected Speaker of the House. He is an account executive at Catalist.

Fecteau is a native of Biddeford, Maine and the grandson of French-Canadian immigrants.^[1][2][3] He was raised by a single mother who worked in healthcare, and Fecteau grew up in subsidized housing;^[2] the family often relied on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program^[4] for food. Fecteau graduated from Biddeford High School,^[1] spending two years as the student representative to the Biddeford School Committee during his time there.^[5]

After high school, Fecteau attended the Catholic University of America^[1][3] where he majored in both political science and theological & religious studies. He was the president of the CUAllies, the University's LGBTQ+ advocacy group, and led a campaign to have the group officially recognized by the University, an effort which ultimately failed.^[4][6][7] While at CUA, Fecteau was the first openly gay speaker of the Student Government General Assembly^[4] and completed internships at the Democratic National Committee, the Human Rights Campaign, Catalist, and in the office of US Representative Chellie Pingree.^[8] He was the first person in his family to graduate from college.^[3][2]

Fecteau has worked as a field organizer for Mainers United for Marriage in 2012, was the chairman of the Biddeford Democratic Committee from 2011 to 2012, and was an editorial director at Trueline Publishing in Portland, Maine.^[9][5] He has worked at several Ogunquit, Maine businesses since 2014 and at the Perkins Cove.^[10] In late 2020, he was hired as an account executive at Catalist.^[11][3]

In 2013, while he was still a student at CUA, Fecteau began his campaign for Maine House District 11. He traveled to Maine on weekends to campaign and recruited friends to call voters during the weekends when he could not make the trip.^[4] Fecteau defeated fellow Democrat David Flood 65%-35% in the 2014 House District 11 Democratic primary and beat Republican Debi Davis 67%-33% in the general election.^[9] He was 21, the third-youngest member of the Maine legislature and the youngest openly gay state representative in the United States.^[12][1]

Fecteau ran unopposed in the 2016 Democratic primary and defeated Republican Renee Morin 68%-32%.^[9]

Fecteau lives in Biddeford with his Goldendoodle, Pancake.^[11] In 2015, he received Youth Innovator of the Year award from The Trevor Project, a group focused on suicide prevention among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning, and queer youth, at their annual TrevorLIVE event.^[31]