Blast from the Past for Marriage Equality

I was on a conference call tonight with lots of activists from all over the country who are organzing marriage equality protests at marriage license counters on Valentine's Day.  The moderator, Molly -- who was fantastic, by the way! -- said a few times how thrilled she was that there were people on the call who had been working on this for an entire decade.

I've actually been working on this for more than 22 years.  :-)

The call stirred up some memories, so I dug up the video from CBS News in New York City that documented our protest at the Marriage License Bureau in Manhattan back in 1989. 

[As a side note, and not to take away from their efforts, but I was amused in February 2010 when Queer Rising (including activists I respect and appreciate) put out a press release touting their "unprecedented protest" at the Marriage License Bureau.  Sorry, folks, I appreciate your activism, but not even close!!  You may not have known that you were following in our footsteps almost exactly, but you were.  It's true that we didn't chain ourselves to the entrance 21 years earlier, but then I don't think locking people inside of a building is pretty much ever a good idea for our cause.  And it's also true that you didn't follow up your protest with a law suit against the City of New York, as we did.]

What the video doesn't show (although it was covered by other media at the time) is that after that demonstration, me, the man I was attempting to marry, and 3 or 4 other couples were not satisfied with the result, so we made a sudden decision on the spot.  We went from that demonstration directly to meet with lawyers, where we filed one of the very first law suits for marriage equality ever filed in this country (that I know of, anyways).  I was a named plaintiff in that suit.  We sued the City of New York and the County Clerk under NYC's anti-discrimation laws for refusing to give us marriage license applications. 

Unfortunately, many months later, our law suit was dismissed by a judge who told us that NYC was merely administering New York STATE's marriage laws, so they were off the hook.  Which was bogus, of course, but anyway, that's how our particular suit ended 22 years ago.  We tried (and have been trying ever since) -- and I don't think many people know that history.

Hopefully the fight won't have to go on for another 22 years.  It has been a long struggle.  And the ability to marry the one you love is a basic human right.  Enjoy the video!  (I'm the one holding the "Exclusion of Lesbians and Gays is IMMORAL" sign in a few of the scenes.)