by Pat Gozemba Shortly after the Goodridge decision affirmed marriage equality in Massachusetts on November 18, 2003, Rev. Lou Sheldon of California mustered his troops declaring, “Massachusetts is our Iwo Jima.” Well, the Rev. Sheldon and his ilk lost that battle and now Iwo Jima has come to him in California—the land of sequels. Sheldon’s [...]

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 by Patricia A. Gozemba Equality is a core value in Massachusetts. More than two weeks have passed since our Massachusetts borders fell to the further expansion of equality. When Governor Deval Patrick signed the repeal of the 1913 law that prohibited out-of-state same-sex couples from coming to our state to marry, our state borders became [...]

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 Patricia A. Gozemba Peter Hayashida and Michael Olman are two amazingly creative and accomplished guys whom Karen and I had the pleasure of meeting in Hawaii about five years ago–at a traditional Korean Christmas dinner orchestrated in large part by our mutual friend Rochelle. We bonded with these LA guys around our mutual desires to live [...]

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Day One Guest Blogger: Lisa Berg Beverly Hills District Office of the Los Angeles County Registrar Recorder/County Clerk It was amazing. It was exciting. It was history! I went to the Beverly Hills District Office of the L.A. County Registrar Recorders office to be a part of the very first day that any homosexual couples [...]

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Pretty big numbers. Pretty huge victories. We are becoming part of “We the people.”  As Massachusetts celebrates four years of marriage equality, 60 million Americans now live in three states where gay marriages are recognized. California’s high court and New York’s governor made it possible for millions more Americans to opt for marriage–and have their marriages recognized [...]

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In a recent Bay Windows article, I wrote about Rosanne Schembri and Lisa Berg, a California couple longing to marry. Here are some photos of them that did not make it into the newspaper but tell an important story about who we are and our desires to have our civil rights. 1979    On September [...]

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On Monday, May 20, the Boston Globe published this letter from Courting Equality author Karen Kahn: CONGRATULATIONS TO California and all its lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender citizens who have been recognized as equal citizens by the state’s Supreme Court. The California court affirmed its 1948 Perez decision recognizing that the choice of one’s marriage [...]

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In May 17 article, following the California Supreme Court’s ruling in favor of same-sex marriage, Elizabeth Mehren of the LA Times reminds readers that after 4 years, Massachusetts has shown the world that same-sex marriage does not bring with it the collapse of civilization. Mehren talked with Karen Kahn, co-author of Courting Equality, and quoted her at length:   In [...]

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I’m officially a Massachusetts resident–though in my mind I’m a resident of Hawai’i. Karen Kahn and I were married here on September 1, 2005. We didn’t rush to marriage but the proccess of working on Courting Equality made us realize that we would be foolish to miss the opportunity to exercise the fundamental civil right [...]

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California, we are so happy to have you join us. It’s hardly a “from sea to shining sea moment” of marriage equality, but now Massachusetts and California have shown the country that equal marriage is fundamental to freedom and liberty. The threats to the marriage equality movement in California will probably continue, just as they [...]

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