The Road to Marriage Equality

Kevin Cathcart has served as the executive director of Lambda Legal since 1992. He has been involved in marriage equality legal victories across the country. In the anthology (edited by Leslie Gabel-Brett) Love Unites Us: Winning the Freedom to Marry in America (New Press), Cathcart points out that victory may sometimes look like a sudden revolution when, in truth, it rests on years of struggle. Love Unites Us is the history of activists’ passion and persistence in the struggle for marriage rights for same-sex couples in the United States, told in the words of those who waged the battle.

Lillian Faderman is an internationally known scholar of lesbian history and literature, as well as ethnic history and literature. Among her many honors are six Lambda Literary Awards, two American Library Association Awards, and several lifetime achievement awards for scholarship. She is the author of The Gay Revolution and the New York Times Notable Books, Surpassing the Love of Men and Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers. The Gay Revolution: The Story of the Struggle (Simon & Schuster) tells the sweeping story of the modern struggle for gay, lesbian, and trans rights—from the 1950s to the present—based on amazing interviews with politicians, military figures, legal activists, and members of the entire LGBT community who face these challenges every day. The Washington Post writes, “This is the history of the gay and lesbian movement that we’ve been waiting for: compulsively readable, carefully anchored in the historical record, overflowing with riveting stories, human peculiarities and thoughtful analysis of the messy political contradictions that dogged this untidy movement.”

Miami attorney, Elizabeth F. Schwartz has been practicing law since 1997 and is one of Florida’s best known advocates for the legal rights of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community. Her practice focuses on family formation (adoption, insemination, and surrogacy), divorce, estate planning, and probate. In her first book, Before I Do: A Legal Guide to Marriage, Gay and Otherwise (The New Press), Schwartz spells out the range of practical considerations couples should address before tying the knot. She explores the rights marriage provides and those it does not. With cameos from some of the most prominent LGBT professionals, Schwartz explains all of the implications of marriage from name changes and getting a license to taxes, insurance, Social Security, and much more. Substantial chapters on estate planning, pre- and post-nuptial agreements, and organizing finances make Before I Do relevant for all couples, young and older, and a crucial handbook for anyone considering marriage—because, as Schwartz explains, just because you can get married does not mean you should.

Miami Herald staff writer Steve Rothaus covers LGBT issues in South Florida. He joined the Herald in 1985, while a journalism major at Florida International University. He came out at work in 1987 and served five years as a board member of the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association (NLGJA). Rothaus founded the association's Newsroom Outreach Project and traveled the country visiting newspapers, television stations and college campuses to discuss gay news coverage and workplace issues. Rothaus won the 1998 GLAAD Media Award for outstanding newspaper columnist. In 2001, he was part of a Miami Herald team that shared the Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Reporting. The Miami-Dade Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce in 2010 named him Business Person of the Year. Equality Florida presented Rothaus with its 2012 Voice For Equality award. In 2014, he co-produced The Day It Snowed In Miami: A Chronology of the LGBT-Rights Movement, a film documentary presented by Miami Herald Media Company and WPBT2.