Great to see Mary Bonauto getting some well-deserved recognition in the traditional media. She's a real hero to the community. Noah Bierman from the Boston Globe wrote the profile:
For more than 20 years, Bonauto, now 49, has been a fixture of the Massachusetts gay rights crusade. Her work on behalf of the Boston-based Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders has garnered her a reputation as the region’s most influential gay rights lawyer.I'm so glad she's on our side doing what she's doing.
But as her successes expand onto a national stage, they also place her among the most significant activists in the country.
Not only did Bonauto argue the gay marriage case in Massachusetts; she worked on a team that won the right to legalize civil unions in Vermont. And she is the co-lead counsel on two cases challenging the Defense of Marriage Act, the 1996 law that the Obama administration weighed in on last week.
It will be up to the courts to make a final determination on whether the law is, in fact, constitutional, but Obama’s decision was still a milestone for Bonauto and others in the movement.
“I certainly never counted on such a moment,’’ Bonauto said of the president’s policy shift.
