Lawyer Reflects On Natn's First Gay Marriag: 'The Cage Had Been Lifted' : NPR

gay marriage rights in massachusetts

McLennan County Jtice of the Peace Dianne Hensley filed a lawsu after a state agency warned her about refg to marry gay upl. She hop a recent U.S. Supreme Court se about relig eedom helps her e.

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LAWYER REFLECTS ON NATN'S FIRST GAY MARRIAG: 'THE CAGE HAD BEEN LIFTED'

Laws, s, and web sourc on gay marriage. * gay marriage rights in massachusetts *

Massachetts' "gay marriage" cisn.

Hog and mortgag for gay and lbian upl, Mortgage. How to get married Massachetts, Gay and Lbian Advot and Defenrs (GLAD), July 2015.

A legal gui for lbian and gay upl by Frerick Hertz, Nolo, 2020.

REFLECTG ON MASSACHETTS' HISTORIC GAY RIGHTS LG, 15 YEARS LATER: ANALYSIS

Ten years ago this week, Massachetts beme the first state to legalize gay marriage. Attorney Mary Bonto, one of the key drivers of the change, is a quiet, unassumg mother of two om Mae. * gay marriage rights in massachusetts *

Lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr fay law, Thomson Rters, Annual.

Morn fai: effective advocy for lbian and gay clients, MCLE, 2013.

The road to marriage equaly began April 2001 when Gay and Lbian Advot and Defenrs, a nonprof group of attorneys that works on LBGTQIA+ issu, started a su agast the Massachetts Department of Public Health on behalf of seven gay and lbian upl who had been nied marriage licens.

CALIFORNIA VOTERS WILL BE ASKED TO REAFFIRM GAY MARRIAGE PROTECTNS ON 2024 BALLOT

A Pevian high urt has orred same-sex unns to be legally registered public rerds, markg a victory for the LGBTQ muny a untry that has been reluctant to regnize gay upl. * gay marriage rights in massachusetts *

Michelle Johnson and Myrna Greenfield joed dozens of other same-sex upl to be married the night gay marriage was legalized Massachetts.

The fact that they liv a state wh legalized gay marriage ma a difference.

“I have been really pleasantly surprised at how differently people treat you when you're officially married and how eager and willg people have been to wele gay people to the fold, ” said Myrna Greenfield, Johnson’s wife. It had been six months sce her arguments had persuad Massachetts' hight urt to allow the natn's first legal gay marriag, but opponents were still tryg to stop the weddgs before they started. Early Fights Barney Frank, an openly gay former ngrsman, lls Bonto "the LGBT muny's equivalent of Thurgood Marshall" — a brilliant polil strategist for the way she methodilly built the se for gay marriage, one state at a time.

GAY MARRIAGE MASSACHETTS

In June of 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court led all state bans on same-sex marriage unnstutnal, allowg gay and lbian upl to marry natnwi. This timele highlights the chang state polici leadg up to that lg. * gay marriage rights in massachusetts *

Almost immediately after she began workg 1990 for the gay advocy group GLAD (Gay and Lbian Advot and Defenrs) Boston, clients started askg Bonto to sue for gay marriage. Bonto wh Edward Balmelli and Michael Han, platiffs the landmark se that legalized gay marriage Massachetts. ' You uldn't e 'gay people' and 'civil rights' the same sentence.

TEXAS JUDGE WHO DON’T WANT TO PERFORM GAY MARRIAGE CEREMONI HOP WEB SIGNER’S SUPREME COURT SE HELPS HER FIGHT

Massachetts fed a new chapter civil rights history Monday as same-sex upl began exchangg weddg vows, markg the first time a state has granted gays and lbians the right to marry. * gay marriage rights in massachusetts *

" In that ntext, Bonto says, gay marriage was a pipe dream.

By the late 1990s, after seeg an almost-w for gay marriage Hawaii and gettg her own almost-w Vermont (that end civil unns stead of marriage), Bonto was ready to go for Massachetts. "At the same time, I felt that simply allowg gay people to ntue to suffer was not acceptable. Perhaps nowhere more so than at the Massachetts Statehoe, where opponents were phg for a nstutnal ban on gay marriage.

California voters will be asked to affirm gay marriage rights on the 2024 ballot followg Prop. 8 ncerns about the state nstutn. * gay marriage rights in massachusetts *

But setbacks ntued as well, like when voters nixed gay marriage Mae, where Bonto was livg wh her wife and tw girls. He lls Bonto astute and profsnal, but says her legal arguments, which he nsirs flty, laid the foundatn for what he lls today's "tolerance for anyone who dar oppose gay marriage. For her part, Bonto dismiss suggtns that a new orthodoxy on gay marriage leav no room for dissent.

Rather, she says, opponents simply lost steam once gay marriag started to happen.

Massachetts' hight urt last month led a 4-3 cisn that the state's ban on same-sex marriage was unnstutnal and orred the state legislature to e up wh a solutn wh 180 days. The state's lg has brought the legal and polil bate over gay marriage to the natnal level.. * gay marriage rights in massachusetts *

As she puts , gay marriage is actually the bt se for gay marriage.

*BEAR-MAGAZINE.COM* GAY MARRIAGE RIGHTS IN MASSACHUSETTS

Texas judge still fightg to ny weddg ceremoni to gay upl | The Texas Tribune.

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