Founding Mothers

by Tony Giampetruzzi, photos Joel Bejamin

Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley (left), along with her Civil Rights Division Chief Maura Healey and GLAD Attorney Mary Bonauto

On July 8, a federal judge ruled that Army Veteran Darrel Hopkins won’t have to choose whether to be interred in a Arlington National Cemetery in recognition of his devoted service to his country, or be buried next to his husband Tom Casey Hopkins elsewhere—a choice married couples with opposite-sex partners have never had to make.

And while U.S. District Court Judge Joseph Tauro’s July decisions are likely to be appealed, even up to the Supreme Court, they represent a clear and major victory in the fight to overturn DOMA, the so-called Defense of Marriage Act, which bans the federal government from providing any recognition of marriage between partners of the same sex.

That such a clearly pro-equality ruling came from a judge appointed by former president Nixon, comes thanks—in no small measure—to the work of three local women.

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