Courting Equality:A Documentary History of America’s First Same Sex Marriages!

by Pat Gozemba, Karen Kahn & Marilyn Humprhies, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court granted equal marriage benefits to same-sex couples. The decision provoked a searing public debate over the meaning of marriage and family, civil rights, and the role of religion in law and society. But the experiment went forward nonetheless: thousands of Massachusetts gays and lesbians married and, remarkably, the sky did not fall. Through engaging storytelling and powerful photographs, Courting Equality takes readers through the volatile public debate following the decision and introduces some of the many lesbian and gay families who have taken advantage of equal marriage laws.
In Massachusetts, equal marriage has not destroyed the family but rather has reinforced the importance of love, commitment, fairness, and equality to the functioning of healthy democratic communities. Celebrate Massachusetts historic same-sex marriage victory. On June 14, 2007, the Massachusetts legislature once again voted to support LGBT equality, refusing to send to the ballot a constitutional amendment that would have banned same-sex marriage. Courting Equality is the first book to tell the extraordinary story of this civil rights victory. With nearly 10,000 married same-sex couples, Massachusetts has successfully broken through the boundaries of an age-old institution.
By sharing this book with friends and family you can ensure that an ever-growing number of people understand that same-sex marriage is about the same thing as heterosexual marriage whom we choose to love and whom we call family. 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 Sinkford, president of the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations