New Book Documents Massachusetts Gay Marriage Victory
Authors coming to Knoxville for book signing
From staff reports Courting Equality: A Documentary History of America’s First Legal
Same-Sex Marriages (Beacon Press, 2007) provides readers a front-row
seat to Massachusetts’s successful battle for gay marriage. Through
engaging storytelling and more than 100 powerful color photographs,
Patricia A.
Gozemba, Karen Kahn and Marilyn Humphries chronicle the history of
America’s latest civil rights struggle. The Improper Bostonian says, “The
pictures of protests and rallies—both the pro-and the anti- forces
swarming with energy—make you feel like you’re witnessing a combination of
the American Revolution and a sizzling red Sox game.”
“My hope is that the photographs in this book will help others understand
what went on in Massachusetts, how so many people, straight and LGBT
alike, fought for an issue which conferred dignity as well as the benefits
of marriage on the gay and lesbian community,” writes Humphries in
Courting Equality’s Photographer’s Preface. “I believe that when others
look at the faces of these families and the people who worked so hard in
this struggle they will see the same compelling combination of hope and
dignity that I do and understand our commonality and responsibility to one
another.”
The lively historical narrative of Gozemba and Kahn captures early efforts
by LGBT activists to secure family and parenting rights, the 2003
celebrations
and protests that followed the Massachusetts Supreme
Court’s decision in Goodridge vs. the Department of Public Health, and the
happiness of families who have benefited from achieving equality. Readers
are taken behind the scenes and front and center—in the legislature and in
LGBT-headed homes.
Photo by Marilyn Humphries
Praise for Courting Equality
"Courting Equality is a very important book on several levels. First, it
chronicles the events that led up to same sex marriage in Massachusetts, a
historic event in our country’s move towards making the wonderful
principles of the Constitution applicable to all of our citizens. Second,
it shows how political support in the elected Legislature grew rapidly as
the reality of allowing same-sex couples to love each other demolished the
prejudices that prevented same-sex marriage previously. Finally, it
reinforces the point—which was no surprise to those of us fighting for
equal treatment for all people—that same-sex marriage has been an entirely
positive thing for thousands of men and women in Massachusetts, and has
had zero negative consequences at all. Too often, political literature
focuses on the bad news, Courting Equality tells some very good news very
well."
—U.S. Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts
“Courting Equality offers timely and vivid testimony to the power of
commitment. Gozemba and Kahn take great care in tracing the complex legal
and legislative processes that resulted in the first legal same-sex
weddings. These fascinating behind-the-scenes stories are valuable
reminders that the profound historic events surrounding the Goodridge case
were played out on an intimate, human scale, in the lives of real
families. Marilyn Humphries’ photographs are a gift to us all. They
provide moving and eloquent documentation of each stage in the struggle to
end discrimination in the Massachusetts marriage statutes. Courting
Equality bears witness to the determination, the love, and, ultimately,
the jubilation of thousands of ordinary people who believed in an
extraordinary dream.” —Rev. William G. Sinkford, President of the
Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations
“Courting Equality is a remarkable chronicle of exactly how social change
happens. Marilyn Humphries’ vivid photographic documentation of the fight
for same-sex marriage hardly needs any elaboration, but Kahn’s and
Gozemba’s accompanying legal history is riveting. Words and pictures
together create a moving, human portrait of representative democracy at
work.”
—Alison Bechdel, author of Fun Home and Dykes to Watch Out For
“What stands out in this masterful and nuanced collection of
photographs–and the politically astute accompanying text–are the
individual efforts over many years that led to the collective triumph for
same-sex marriage in Massachusetts.”
—The Advocate
About the Authors
Patricia A. Gozemba, a former professor of English and
Women’s Studies, is the coauthor of Pockets of Hope: How Students and
Teachers Change the World. She is also a founding member of The History
Project, which has been documenting LGBT Boston since 1980.
The former editor of Sojourner: The Women’s Forum, Karen Kahn
also edited Frontline Feminism: Essays from Sojourner’s First Twenty
Years. Gozemba and Kahn got married in September 2005; they live in Salem,
Massachusetts.
Marilyn Humphries is an independent photojournalist whose
work over the past 25 years has appeared in numerous publications
including: New York Times, The Progressive, Bay Windows, Gay Community
News, and the Boston Phoenix. She lives in Beverly, Massachusetts.
Event: Media presentation and author reading and signing of
Courting Equality: A Documentary of America’s First Legal Same-Sex
Marriages (Beacon Press, 2007)
When: August 30, 2007 at 6:30 pm.
Where: Carpe Librum Booksellers, 5113A Kingston Pike, Knoxville, TN
37919
Gozemba, Karen Kahn and Marilyn Humphries chronicle the history of
America’s latest civil rights struggle. The Improper Bostonian says, “The
pictures of protests and rallies—both the pro-and the anti- forces
swarming with energy—make you feel like you’re witnessing a combination of
the American Revolution and a sizzling red Sox game.”
