The Gay Marriage Thing | |
---|---|
Directed by | Stephanie Higgins |
Produced by | Lorre Fritchy |
Cinematography | Patrick Carey Stephanie Higgins Lorre Fritchy Mandy Minichello Gayle Green |
Edited by | Stephanie Higgins Lorre Fritchy |
Music by | Jeanine Cowen |
Distributed by | The Cinema Guild |
Release date |
|
Running time | 47 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
The Gay Marriage Thing is a 2005 documentary film directed by Stephanie Higgins, who attended the Emerson College film school graduate program. The film follows the heated debate over same-sex marriage in Massachusetts in 2004 through the perspective of a lesbian couple who wishes to legally marry, as that state became the first in the U.S. to grant same-sex marriages (although those marriages were not recognized by the federal government).
The film was shot entirely throughout Massachusetts.
The Gay Marriage Thing follows Gayle and Lorre, thirtysomething college sweethearts who marked their 15th anniversary a year after the Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled a ban on same-sex marriage stating that it was unconstitutional.
The film includes footage of protests outside the Massachusetts State House, the churches of the Reverends Rich Wiesenbach and Carlton Smith, and the state legislature leading up to May 17, 2004, the first date same-sex couples could file for marriage licenses in Massachusetts.
The Gay Marriage Thing includes interviews with United Church of Christ Reverend Richard Wiesenbach, Massachusetts State Representative Kathi-Anne Reinstein, Unitarian Universalist Reverend Carlton Smith, as well as the featured couple and a multitude of man-on-the-street interviews.
In 2005 the Cinema Guild released the film on DVD in the United States.
Artivist Film Festival Los Angeles – November 11, 2006
Boston Gay and Lesbian Film/Video Festival – May 21, 2006
Boston Jewish Film Festival – November 8, 2004 (sneak preview work in progress)
Breckenridge Festival of Film, Colorado – September 10, 2005
Camden International Film Festival, Maine – September 30, 2005
Maine Jewish Film Festival – March 14, 2005
New England Film and Video Festival, Massachusetts – October 9, 2005
New Hampshire Film Expo – October 15, 2005
Chicago Reeling Film Festival – November 4, 2005
Reel Identities Film Festival – New Orleans – June 11, 2005 *2nd place audience favorite
Rhode Island International Film Festival – August 11, 2005
Women on Film Festival Key West, FL – September 5, 2007
Baker v. Vermont, 744 A.2d 864, was a lawsuit decided by Vermont Supreme Court on December 20, 1999. It was one of the first judicial affirmations of the right of same-sex couples to treatment equivalent to that afforded different-sex couples. The decision held that the state's prohibition on same-sex marriage denied rights granted by the Vermont Constitution. The court ordered the Vermont legislature to either allow same-sex marriages or implement an alternative legal mechanism according similar rights to same-sex couples.
GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) is a non-profit legal rights organization in the United States. The organization works to end discrimination based on sexual orientation, HIV status, and gender identity and expression. The organization primarily achieves this goal through litigation, advocacy, and education work in all areas of LGBTQ rights and the rights of people living with HIV. In addition, GLAD operates a legal information line, GLAD Answers, where LGBTQ & HIV+ residents of New England can receive attorney referrals and information about their rights. The organization changed its name to GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders in February 2016.
"New queer cinema" is a term first coined by the academic B. Ruby Rich in Sight & Sound magazine in 1992 to define and describe a movement in queer-themed independent filmmaking in the early 1990s.
Same-sex marriage has been legally recognized in Massachusetts since May 17, 2004, as a result of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) ruling in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health that it was unconstitutional under the Constitution of Massachusetts to allow only opposite-sex couples to marry. Massachusetts was the sixth jurisdiction in the world to legalize same-sex marriage after the Netherlands, Belgium, Ontario, British Columbia, and Quebec. It was the first U.S. state to open marriage to same-sex couples.
Same-sex marriage has been legal in Vermont since September 1, 2009. The Senate passed same-sex marriage legislation on March 23, which the House of Representatives amended and approved by a 94–52 vote on April 3, 2009. Governor Jim Douglas vetoed the bill as promised on April 6. Both the House and the Senate successfully overrode Douglas' veto the following day. The law went into effect on September 1, making Vermont the fourth U.S. state to legalize same-sex marriage after Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Iowa, and the first to introduce same-sex marriage by enacting a statute without being required to do so by a court decision.
Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 207, Section 11, more commonly known as the 1913 law, is a Massachusetts law enacted in 1913 and repealed in 2008 that invalidated the marriage of non-residents if the marriage was invalid in the state where they lived. It originated during a period of heightened antipathy to interracial marriage and went largely unenforced until used between 2004 and 2008 to deny marriage licenses to out-of-state same-sex couples.
Billy's Dad is a Fudge-Packer! is a 2004 American black-and-white short comedy film written and directed by Jamie Donahue in her first non-acting effort. It is a parody of the 1950s social guidance films, and depicts the life of a boy learning about adulthood in a traditional family. The apparently innocent account of family life in the 1950s is loaded with sexual innuendo. It was made by production company POWER UP.
Domestic partnerships were established in the state of Maine by statute in April 2004, taking effect on July 30, 2004. This placed Maine in the category of U.S. states that offered limited recognition of same-sex relationships, but not all of the legal protections of marriage, as Maine does not recognize common law marriages.
The Notre Dame Queer Film Festival was founded in 2004 and ran in 2005 under the same moniker. In 2006, under pressure from a new administration led by University President Rev. John I. Jenkins, the name of the festival was changed to Gay and Lesbian Film: Filmmakers, Narratives, Spectatorships. The 2007 incarnation of the festival again changed names to Qlassics: Reimagining Sexuality and the Self in Recent American Cinema. More recently, the series has been titled the GlobaLGBTQ+ Film Festival, with a primary focus on films produced outside of the United States.
Reel Affirmations (RA) is a non-profit, all-volunteer LGBT film festival in Washington, D.C. Founded in 1991 and held every year in mid-October, as of 2011 Reel Affirmations was one of the largest LGBT film festivals in the United States. Baltimore's Gay Life newspaper called it "one of the top three films festivals for the entire LGBT community." A 2007 guidebook claims it was one of the largest LGBT film festivals in the world. A listing of LGBT film festivals claims it is the largest all-volunteer film festival in the world.
The extension of civil marriage, union, and domestic partnership rights to same-sex couples in various jurisdictions can raise legal issues upon dissolution of these unions that are not experienced by opposite-sex couples, especially if law of their residence or nationality does not have same-sex marriage or partnerships.
Edie & Thea: A Very Long Engagement is a 2009 American documentary film directed and produced by Susan Muska and Gréta Ólafsdóttir for their company Bless Bless Productions, in association with Sundance Channel. The film tells the story of the long-term lesbian relationship between Edie Windsor and Thea Spyer, including their respective childhoods, their meeting in 1963, their lives and careers in New York City, Thea's diagnosis with multiple sclerosis and Edie's care for her partner, and their wedding in Toronto, Canada, in May 2007, because gay marriage was not then legal in their home state of New York.
Mary L. Bonauto is an American lawyer and civil rights advocate who has worked to eradicate discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, and has been referred to by US Representative Barney Frank as "our Thurgood Marshall." She began working with the Massachusetts-based Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, now named GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) organization in 1990. A resident of Portland, Maine, Bonauto was one of the leaders who both worked with the Maine legislature to pass a same-sex marriage law and to defend it at the ballot in a narrow loss during the 2009 election campaign. These efforts were successful when, in the 2012 election, Maine voters approved the measure, making it the first state to allow same-sex marriage licenses via ballot vote. Bonauto is best known for being lead counsel in the case Goodridge v. Department of Public Health which made Massachusetts the first state in which same-sex couples could marry in 2004. She is also responsible for leading the first strategic challenges to section three of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people in the U.S. state of Maine have the same legal rights as non-LGBTQ people. Same-sex marriage has been recognized in Maine since December 2012, following a referendum in which a majority of voters approved an initiative to legalize same-sex marriage. Discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity is prohibited in the areas of employment, housing, credit and public accommodations. In addition, the use of conversion therapy on minors has been outlawed since 2019, and joint adoption is permitted for same-sex couples.
That Man: Peter Berlin is a 2005 documentary about the popular gay icon Peter Berlin directed by Jim Tushinski. The documentary had its world premiere at the 2005 Berlin International Film Festival.
Tanya Wexler is an American film director. Wexler has been working in the film industry since 1998, when her first film Finding North (1998), was released. Wexler is most known for her 2011 feature film Hysteria. Wexler is known for exploring women's issues in her films and including complex female characters. Wexler has also been involved in advocating for women in the film industry, and advocating for the rights of the LGBTQ+ community.
Throughout Dallas–Fort Worth, there is a large lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community. Since 2005, DFW has constituted one of the largest LGBT communities in Texas.
Fan Popo is a Chinese filmmaker, film critic, and LGBT activist. Fan's documentaries have focused on performance-based activism and coming out as LGBT in the Chinese filial context. He is known for the documentary Mama Rainbow and his well-publicized legal case against the Chinese state media regulator over censorship of it.
Radical Harmonies is a 2002 American independent documentary film directed and executive produced by Dee Mosbacher that presents a history of women's music, which has been defined as music by women, for women, and about women. The film was screened primarily at LGBTQ film festivals in 2003 and 2004.
This article includes a list of references, related reading, or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations .(April 2009) |