‘Love, Equally’ celebrates WA marriage equality, LGBTQ civil rights

Started by Sadauskas, Dec 02, 2022, 11:05 AM

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Sadauskas

'Love, Equally' celebrates WA marriage equality, LGBTQ civil rights


(in the picture) The first legal same-sex marriages in Washington took place on Dec. 9, 2012, including that of Margarethe Cammermeyer, center, and Diane Divelbess, right.

 I'm gonna wait 'til the midnight hour
That's when my love begins to shine!
—Wilson Pickett's 1965 hit, "In the Midnight Hour"

AT MIDNIGHT ON Dec. 9, 2012, Margarethe Cammermeyer and Diane Divelbess, who had long since pledged to be partners — for better or for worse, to love and to cherish — converted their annual Christmas party into a nuptial-fest at their Whidbey Island home. Nine other same-sex couples happily accepted their invitation to be married that night by the mayor of Coupeville.

Across the state, at the midnight hour and throughout that historic day 10 years ago, hundreds of other same-sex couples repeated their vows. Emily and Sarah Cofer, schoolteachers from Snohomish County, stood before Judge Mary Yu in a Seattle courtroom. Robert Mumford, 64, the father of five, and Gary Schmauder, 58, exchanged vows at the Longview United Methodist Church. Other couples chose to be married at city halls, favorite coffee shops or on ocean beaches.

Washington was the seventh state in the nation to enact marriage equality. Opponents had attempted to overturn the legislative mandate signed into law by Gov. Christine Gregoire by filing a referendum. But nearly 54% of Washington voters endorsed the new law. National polls now indicate 70% of Americans support same-sex marriage.

"Love, Equally," a new book and exhibit by Legacy Washington, the Secretary of State's oral history program, spotlights the long and winding road to LGBTQ civil rights in Washington.

Cammermeyer, an Army colonel and nurse, had earned the Bronze Star in Vietnam. Yet she was booted out of the Washington National Guard for being a lesbian. She was stunned to become "one of the most famous lesbians in America" when all she wanted was to serve her country.

Bob Young, the former Seattle Times reporter who became my teammate in 2018, was the lead writer for the "Love, Equally" project. His chapters include profiles on Yu, a state Supreme Court Justice; State Sen. Jamie Pedersen; Manny Santiago, executive director of the State LGBTQ Commission; and Marsha Botzer, one of Washington's foremost trans activists.

My chapter on Cammermeyer's eventful life was a full-circle moment. During my own years as a journalist, I covered her legal battle to be reinstated as the National Guard's chief nurse. My other chapters feature Cal Anderson, the state's first openly gay lawmaker, and Laurie Jinkins, who in 2020 became the state's first female and "out and proud" lesbian Speaker of the House. I write, too, about a mostly unsung hero of the movement: Seattle attorney Pete Francis, who as a young state senator in the 1970s championed repeal of the state's draconian sodomy laws and introduced a gay civil rights bill.

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SOURCES: [Article] seattletimes.com  sadauskas.info  sadauskiene.com
#LGBTQ #LGBTQIA #ConellHarris #sadauskas #DainiusSadauskas #Sadauskiene
Dainius Sadauskas

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