The Catholic Activists Behind The Supreme Court DOMA Fight
Millions who watched the news Wednesday undoubtedly saw photos of Edie Windsor walking into the Supreme Court with her lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, prepared to challenge the injustices that the Defense of Marriage Act have levied against gay and lesbian couples since it was signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1996.
What most people will not know, however, is the instrumental role that few members of the New York City chapter of DignityUSA played in this historic moment.
DignityUSA is an organization of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Catholics that was formally expelled by the Roman Catholic church in 1986 by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. Among the NYC chapter’s many members is Brendan Fay, an Irish-born activist and filmmaker who lives in Queens with his husband, Tom Moulton.
For years, Fay was known in the gay community for co-developing (with fellow activist Jesus Lebron) the Civil Marriage Trail, a project that helped gay and lesbian couples travel to Canada to get legally married. Canada had no residency requirement for marriage, and in 2008, New York state made the recognition of valid, out-of-state same-sex marriages mandatory. It was this project that first led Windsor to Fay.
“Edie called for help. It was urgent,” Fay says. Windsor’s partner of almost four decades, Thea Spyer, had been battling multiple sclerosis since 1975, and doctors had given her only months to live. Fay reached out to Canadian Judge Harvey Brownstone of the Ontario Court of Justice, who gladly performed the ceremony.