BOSTONIANS OF THE YEAR

Mary Bonauto redefined the word "marriage" and gave gay couples around the country hope that their time has come. BY CHARLES P. PIERCE The Crusader

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he could have been a pundit. By "I don't like to have my personal profile so Judicial Court, which held that, hereafter, the now, she could have been a star high," she says, and on the desks of hundreds Commonwealth would define marriage as the performer in the national political of television bookers, hundreds of Rolodexes exclusive "voluntary union of two persons as Kabuki that largely has replaced cease to spin. "I mean, it's OK to be a private spouses." The sex of those two persons did not a national political dialogue. She person, right? I think there are other people matter. The ruling ushered in a spring and sum- couldShave exchanged hardballs with Chris very capable of it and who would probably mer in which the local news was replete with Matthews, or factored in with the O'Reilly enjoy it more than I would. It's not something I images of happy gay and lesbian couples and crowd, or walked the far frontiers of Scarbor- enjoy as much as I enjoy being a lawyer." their happy children involved in weddings of ough Country. She could have been a star, It's not that the credentials aren't there. happy banality aUover . By last Mary Bonauto could, if she just didn't react On November 18, 2003, on behalf of seven month, however, 11 states had passed amend- this way to the whole business, if she wasn't same-sex couples from around Massachusetts, ments to their constitutions banning same-sex such an obvious heretic in the temple of buzz. Bonauto won a 4-3 ruling from the Supreme marriages, and the Massachusetts ruling was

Photograph by JONATHAN WIGGS/THE BOSTON GLOBE being blamed - especially in Punditland - for established widespread acceptance of gay peo- helping President Bush get reelected. Mary Bon- ple as individuals, let alone as families. We auto's triumph suddenly became .ascapegoat. know it harms people to be denied marriage "It's been a tough week," Bonauto admits on a rights. I could regale you with stories, and it's sunny and cold day not long after the presiden- heartbreaking. " tial election. "But I think it's turning around. As Gradually, however, other events intervened. people started to focus on the actual numbers, In 1993, the state Supreme Court in Hawaii it's gotten harder and harder to blame marriage ruled that failure to recognize same-sex couples for same-sex couples for [John] Kerry's defeat. I amounted to "sexdiscrimination.."Sixyears later, know that was the first analysis. [One thing] I in a case on which Bonauto worked as co-coun- took from the exit polls nationally as a silver lin- sel, the Supreme Court extended equal ing was that 62 percent of Americans support rights to same-sex couples in what ultimately significant relationship recognition for same-sex would become known as civil unions. ByApril couples. That's just enormous, that we've come 2001, GLAD lawyers had chosen one couple in that far. There's a streak of fairness that runs Boston, Hillary and Julie Goodridge, to be the A YEAR TO REMEME through a wide swath of the American public." lead plaintiffs in a case known as Goodridgeet al. And it's not that she's in any way timid. She's v.Department of Public Health. As she worked on Pats and sharks and lions, oh, my (and also Sox and Dems and leak~ slight and sandy-haired, with blue eyes like spear the biggest case of her career, Bonauto was also points, a handshake that LyndonJohnson would pregnant with her twins. By Charles R Pierce have been proud to wield, and an instinct for the (And for all the talk that it was the Massa- Oh, for 119,000 votes in Ohio. battle that is no less ferocious for its deliberate chusetts decision that energized the political op- Just that many, begged, borrowed, or (! lack of bombast. position to same-sex marriage, that opposition stolen, and we here in the CommonwE "Nationally, we're at the beginning of a con- .had been building in the country ever since the might be everything we've always though versation about who are these gay and lesbian Hawaii ruling. In 1996, Gary Bauer and other were. John Winthrop stepped off the bo families and their children and how in fact they social conservatives pushed the issue to cen- 1630 and set out to build "a city upc are being harmed by being denied these rights," ter stage during the run-up to that year's Iowa hill" - note to all you red staters out the she says. 'What's going on in this country is that caucuses, and Democratic president Bill Clin- was Boston that provided Ronald Re, you have roughly a third who understand that ton felt enough heat that he signed the Defense with his signature metaphor for the Amer gay people should not be denied marriage rights of Marriage Act that same year. Bythe time the spirit. Pass it on - and we've taken him e by the government, a third of the people who Massachusetts case came to trial, 37 states had seriously down through the centuries. Im feel the exact opposite, and a third of the people outlawed same-sex marriages.) honestly now, Hub of the Universe? But who are struggling over whether it should be The case lost in Suffolk Superior Court. Bon- for a few hours that hung perilouslybetwE civil unions or marriage or anything at all." auto and her clients appealed, and while an at- couple of exit polls, Boston seemed the h Kris Mineau, the president of the Massachu- tempt to amend the state's constitution to prohibit of the world champions of football (age setts FamilyInstitute, disagrees. "From her stand- same-sex marriage failed in July 2002, the lower the world champions of baseball (at Ie point, she represented a certain group of people court's ruling went to the Supreme Judicial Court and the president-elect of the United Stal who had an agenda, and she took it up to the right for review.There, Bonauto based her argument Oh, what a time it would have been! court," Mineau says. 'We certainly don't think it's on the expanded concept of equality and personal Oh, how insufferable we would have b a just decision, and it disenfranchised the people liberty that had been written into the Massachu- Alas, 'twas not to be. The trifecta wen: of Massachusetts." setts Constitution nine years before the US Con- completed, thanks to those folksinthe dis Bonauto, 43, lives in with her partner, stitution was adopted. Typically,it is not an easy lands beyond even. Worcester. They \ Jennifer Wriggins, a law professor, and their sound bite, but neither was the opinion of John willing to give us the Patriots, who bea1 twin daughters. She grew up in Newburgh, up Adams, the architect of the Massachusetts Con- red-state Carolina Panthers for their see the Hudson River from New York,and graduat- stitution, when he wrote in 1818, "I wish it [the Super Bowlchampionship in three years, ed from Hamilton College in 1983 and North- country] may do more and annul every narrow they even were willingto give us the Red eastern University Law School four years later, idea in religion, government, and commerce." who beat the red-state St. LouisCardinal at which time she took a job at a firm in Maine. "They're livingprinciples," Bonauto says. "As Boston's second World Series champior In 1990, she signed on as the first full-time gay- time goes on, what equality means, and even the in 86 years. But there was no way they W civil-rights lawyer at Gay & Lesbian Advocates people who deserve equality, those are evolving give us our second POTUSin 44 years & Defenders in Boston. At the time, Massachu- concepts. . the initials JFK. setts had just become the second state to pass "I'm not sure it's possible to dial down the All throughout the Commonwealth, a gay-civil-rights law, and Bonauto's early work rhetoric. But it is possible to introduce some people were allowed to get married, anc involved enforcing that law's provisions against, new players: the people who actually are affect- television stations quicklybecame bored for example, employment. discrimination and ed by these decisions. There's no shock value to the whole business.Thevisualsweren't ensuring that police and prosecutors took anti- it, but there's more understanding of who we're good. Instead ofsvelte gents inevening go gay violence more seriously. During that time, talking about." ImI and ladies dressed like Chicago mobs Bonauto routinely turned down cases involving you basically got a bunch of mostly fru same-sex couples who wished to wed. Charles P. Pierce is a member of the Globe Mag- middle-aged people with their angelic chil, "We just did not believe that the time was azine staff. He can be reached at Pierce@globe frolickingoff-camera. Harrumph,went th right," she explains. "In 1990, we hadn't even .com.

Illustration by SCOTT MENCHIN