BRATTLEBORO — A new documentary tells the story of small-town Vermont attorneys Beth Robinson and Susan Murray, who, with Boston lawyer Mary Bonauto, led the two-decade-long struggle for marriage equality that won several historic breakthroughs in LGBT rights.
Directed by Jeff Kaufman, The State of Marriage profiles the remarkable men and women pioneering the national marriage equality movement through their efforts in Vermont in a grassroots campaign that changed the United States.
The film show hows much of the national and international battle for the freedom to marry began in Vermont, as the social engagement and legal strategies first employed here provided a model for the rest of the nation and the world.
“With this film, I wanted to remind people the important groundbreaking role Vermont played in the international struggle for social justice,” says Kaufman, whose film will cap off the opening night of the fourth annual Brattleboro Film Festival (BFF), on Friday, Oct. 30, at 8:30 p.m., at the Latchis Theatre.
Immediately following the film will be a discussion with Vermont House Speaker Shap Smith and state Rep. Bill Lippert, D-Hinesberg, a longtime LGBTQ activist who helped pass Vermont's landmark Marriage Equality Act.
* * *
The State of Marriage tells the untold story of how Robinson and Murray built the foundation for the entire marriage equality movement.
Despite fierce opposition, Vermont became the first state to grant same-sex couples legal recognition in 2000. The action came in the wake of Baker v. Vermont, the groundbreaking 1997 state Supreme Court decision that found “no legally valid rationale for the different treatment” of same-sex couples who wished to marry.
The court ruled that Vermont was “constitutionally required to extend to same-sex couples the common benefits and protections that flow from marriage under Vermont law,” and from that decision emerged civil unions in 2000.
Vermont later became the first state to legalize marriage equality by legislative vote nearly 10 years later.
Robinson and Murray believed that the first step in getting same-sex marriage accepted was to introduce their gay neighbors to the people of the state.
“Susan and Beth had the great idea of setting up booths at county fairs and Rotary clubs around the state, showing pictures of gay couples who live in Vermont,” Kaufman said. “Their goal was to reach out and introduce the state to the common humanity of gays and lesbians, who they are, and [to the concept] that they have rights too.”
Human Rights Campaign National Field Director Marty Rouse said, “Beth and Susan really changed the course of American history.”
Kaufman added, “Civil rights legend Rep. John Lewis compared them to Rosa Parks (whom he knew well).”
Listed in Entertainment Weekly's July 1 story as one of 20 examples of “Hollywood's road to marriage equality, from The Golden Girls to Modern Family,” The State of Marriage also tells “how legal pioneer Mary Bonauto of [Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders] partnered with Robinson and Murray in this struggle,” Kaufman said.
Bonauto served as the lead attorney in the Supreme Court Obergefell v. Hodges decision, which affirmed marriage equality nationwide, and in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health, the 2003 Massachusetts Supreme Court ruling that resulted in full marriage rights extended in that state the following year.
The film also features Freedom to Marry founder Evan Wolfson, U.S. Rep. John Lewis (D-Georgia), and Tony-winning playwright Terrence McNally, plus many Vermonters, including: Governor Peter Shumlin, former Governor Howard Dean, former Vermont Supreme Court Chief Justice Jeffrey Amestoy, Lippert, and Rutland Herald Editorial Page Editor David Moats (who won a Pulitzer Prize for his editorials on the rancorous civil unions debate).
In addition, The State of Marriage features former two-time Republican candidate for governor Ruth Dwyer, and Steve Cable, an opponent of civil unions and marriage equality who was strongly associated with Take Back Vermont, a grassroots movement that formed as a backlash to the court decision and the resulting civil unions legislation.
* * *
Last month, The State of Marriage was voted the Audience Award winner at this year's Boston Globe GlobeDocs film festival.
Filmmaker Kaufman has produced, directed, and written numerous documentaries including The Savoy King: Chick Webb and the Music That Changed America, Brush With Life: The Art of Being Edward Biberman, and Free Shane and Josh.
He has also directed a number of documentaries for Amnesty International (including a short film with New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof) and Education Under Fire (about the persecution of the Baha'i Faith in Iran).
“I like to make films about underdogs, the forgotten, and those who deserve a second look,” Kaufman said. “I am drawn to inspiring stories about folks who are not famous or rich, but who care about their neighbors and make a difference in the world.”
Although his films often are thought-provoking, Kaufman added that he has no interest in forcing his audience to think as he does. Rather, he tries to present people telling stories that bring his audience into special historic moments.
In making The State of Marriage, Kaufman worked for the first time on a film with his wife.
“My partner Marcia Ross is also a respected film and TV casting director of such films as Clueless, The Princess Diaries, John Carter, and The Muppets,” Kaufman said.
Ross, a 30-year veteran of the film industry, has been involved in the casting of “hundreds of feature films, network series, pilots, movies for television, and mini-series,” according to her website.
Kaufman, who feels that it was an oddly moving experience to be working with his marriage partner in a film about the importance of marriage, first became interested in the subject of marriage equality in Vermont many years ago. Long before his career as a filmmaker, Kaufman hosted-produced daily talk radio programs in Los Angeles and Vermont.
“I lived in Middlebury for a number of years,” says Kaufman. “As I worked in radio and newspapers in Vermont at the time, I covered this battle as it was taking place. I personally knew many of the people involved. Frankly, I never saw anything happen like this before.”
Vermont made history.
“If you want to get technical, Vermont was not the first state to grant marriage,” Kaufman qualifies, “but before anyone else in the world did anything like it, Vermont led the way in 2000 by allowing civil unions for same-sex couples, wherein couples were given rights very similar to marriage.”
But it was not marriage.
“Beth is the first to say that was not full equality,” says Kaufman.
The struggle for had to continue. For years, Robinson, Murray, and Bonito kept on working for true marriage for same-sex couples in Vermont until they succeeded.
“Amazingly, they did it through the Legislature,” says Kaufman. “At the time, people said that marriage equality would never pass except by court order. But Vermont became the first state where it passed not through a judicial order, but in the state legislature.”
However, that was not the end of the story.
Robinson says, “After the bill passed, we truly expected our Republican governor, Jim Douglas, to sign the bill.”
He did not.
To override a governor's veto, a two-thirds legislative majority is required. But after a lot of tension and more work, the Legislature did just that, when the law passed by one vote in 2009.
“This is story of courage that took a number of Republicans to override Governor Douglas's veto,” Kaufman said. “Some lost their seats, but said they never regretted their decision.”
“I have to say that all in all, it was a very civil battle, which I have tried to reflect in the film,” he continued. “While The State of Marriage celebrates the victories of same-sex marriage, it also goes out of its way to be respectful to the opponents of the bill.”
* * *
As a postscript to the story, Robinson was appointed as justice to the Vermont Supreme Court by Shumlin in 2012. She is one of only eight LGBT state supreme court justices in the country.
When Kaufman proposed making The State of Marriage, many people were perplexed why he would take on this subject, telling him that that LGBT victory has been won. These comments, he said, also came before the U.S. Supreme Court ruling.
“The struggle is far from over, and we can expect a lot of backlash and push back on this issue,” says Kaufman. “How can you move forward if you don't know your history?”