Greg Jobin-Leeds is the author of When We Fight, We Win: 21st Century Social Movements and the Activists That Are Transforming Our World. The book, rich with art curated by the activist art group AgitArte, chronicles the movements for same-sex marriage, Black Lives Matter, the DREAM Act, climate justice, mass incarceration, Occupy Wall Street, and others. Jobin-Leeds is the son of Holocaust survivors. He discusses what he has learned about how to successfully make transformative change in the 21st century.
Vermont marriage equality trail blazers Rep. Bill Lippert & former Vermont Supreme Court Chief Justice Jeffrey Amestoy, outside WDEV after The Vermont Conversation, July 8, 2015.
On June 26, 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that same-sex couples could wed throughout the country. The avalanche that swept America actually began as a snowball high up in the Green Mountains in the late 1990s. In 1999, the Vermont Supreme Court ruled in Baker v Vermont that the Vermont state legislature must craft a law granting all of the rights and privileges of marriage to same-sex couples. In 2000, Vermont legalized civil unions, the most sweeping grant of rights to same-sex couples up to that time. In 2009, the Vermont state legislature legalized same-sex marriage, making it the first legislature to do so. We talk about Vermont’s role in the marriage equality revolution with some of the pioneers of that effort:
Former Vermont Supreme Court Chief Justice Jeffrey Amestoy, author of the groundbreaking Baker v Vermont ruling.
State Representative Bill Lippert, who led the fight for passage of civil unions in 2000, and same sex marriage in 2009.
Susan Murray, attorney with Langrock Sperry & Wool, who represented the plaintiffs in Baker v Vermont, along with attorney Beth Robinson (now a Vermont Supreme Court judge).
Stacey Jolles & Nina Beck, a lesbian couple who were one of three same-sex couples who sued the State of Vermont in the late 1990s in Baker v Vermont, catalyzing the fight for marriage equality in Vermont, and in the U.S.
Greg Jobin-Leeds is the author of When We Fight, We Win: 21st Century Social Movements and the Activists That Are Transforming Our World. The book, rich with art curated by the activist art group AgitArte, chronicles the movements for same-sex marriage, Black Lives Matter, the DREAM Act, climate justice, mass incarceration, Occupy Wall Street, and others. Jobin-Leeds is the son of Holocaust survivors. He discusses what he has learned about how to successfully make transformative change in the 21st century.
