Working in the LGBT movement comes with a lot of bliss and heartache but my most memorable experience has to be witnessing the joy of May 17, 2004 in Boston. It was the first day same-sex couples were granted equality in marriage anywhere in the country and I was there to capture the moment and help share it with the rest of the country. It was clear on that day that this was just the beginning of the joy to come, but I wouldn’t have placed a bet on where we’d be five years later.
Back then the road looked so hard and so long and now I continue to be amazed by the domino of states fulfilling their promise of equality lately. Now we have marriage in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa, Vermont and Maine. We are on the cusp of victory in New Hampshire and New York is following close behind. New Jersey is looking to advance beyond civil unions and domestic partnerships are the law in Oregon and Washington. Advocates in California are laying the groundwork to regain marriage. These and other advances in so many other states are becoming bizarrely commonplace.
I dug through the HRC archives to uncover some of the footage we shot on that amazing occasion. It brings back so many memories for me but most of all reminds me of the people who have – and continue – to fight for the simple right to say, “I do.”
Celebration in Cambridge, MA at the stroke of Midnight, May 17, 2004:
Couples, including plaintiffs in the landmark lawsuit that brought us marriage, at Boston City Hall the morning of May 17, 2004:
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