Introduction


Photo Credit: Ted Eytan

The book’s opening takes readers to June 26, 2013, the day the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). Lisa Tillmann watches coverage at the home of Deena Flamm, a dear friend, and of Kathryn Norsworthy, her closest colleague and friend. Kathryn and Deena married in Massachusetts in 2011, but neither the federal government nor the state of Florida, where they live, recognized their union. After showing the group learn of DOMA’s demise, Tillmann offers a history of this project, which began in 1994 when she and her then-fiancé began their integration into a network of gay male friends. The group served as participants in Tillmann’s Ph.D. dissertation, her first book, Between Gay and Straight, and several follow-up pieces. The Preface then situates this project in the historical, legal/political, and cultural context of LGBT civil rights.