The Race to Save Marriage Equality

by Chuck Colbert | photos by Marilyn Humphries

The untold story of how an unprecedented, years-long coordinated effort by gay rights advocates to defeat a ban on equal marriage in Massachusetts was decided in the final nail-biting moments of a vote on June 14, 2007

Three hours before the vote, Holly Gunner received an urgent phone call. “We need a priest,” said the voice on the other end. “We need a priest to speak with a Catholic lawmaker.”

As a seasoned lobbyist on Beacon Hill, Gunner knew she had to act quickly. Every vote counted. It was June 14, 2007, and the Massachusetts Legislature seemed on the brink of allowing a popular vote on whether to take away civil-marriage rights from same-sex couples.

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