WEST HARTFORD, Conn. — In 2009, Beth Kerrigan and Jody Mock were married in their West Hartford living room.
“We actually ended up pulling our wedding together in just a couple of weeks,” Mock said. “So we said let's do it in the house. We'll cater it ourselves, you know, we'll have it at lunchtime.”
“Jody will make the quiche!” Kerrigan chimed in.
The couple has been together for 30 years and married for 14.
“It feels like we're normal,” said Kerrigan. “For me, it just feels like we're part of the fold and that's what everyone does. They celebrate their days that they got married, or they were born or, you know, it's just a landmark.”
This is a landmark Kerrigan and Mock didn’t always have the right to.
“It really was, with the Kerrigan decision and Connecticut, that Connecticut really established its leader status on LGBTQ rights,” said Janson Wu, executive director of the GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD).
Fifteen years ago, the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled gay and lesbian couples are entitled to full marriage equality, effectively making Connecticut the second state in the country to legalize same-sex marriage. (Massachusetts and California had made it legal in 2004 and 2008 respectively, but voters repealed same-sex marriage in California days before it became legal in Connecticut.)
“We're just people and that's what you're showing to the world,” explained Mock. “We're just people that want the same thing everybody else has. The whole point of the suit was to make us normal, to make us, to normalize us. And so showing that you're just like your neighbors across the street, we just happen to be the same gender.”
However, showing that similarity came with consequences.
“Decision day was really scary,” Kerrigan remembered. “The press release came out for the case on a Thursday. On Monday, I was brought into an office for a private meeting and I was terminated… I was shaking, I was trembling. I couldn't believe it. I reached out to an attorney and decided, given everything, it was best to battle marriage equality, than to look like that person who's going to battle everything and swallow that.”
Fourteen years later Connecticut, and the country, have come a long way, but the fight is far from over.
“The day-to-day reality is that we hear from LGBTQ people, that they still face discrimination on a daily basis,” Wu said. “We know that biases and prejudice continue to exist. And that's why it's so important that not only we pass important protections and laws, but we also make sure that they're robustly enforced.”
“Don't assume that because you have this, it couldn't go away,” added Mock. “If we were trying to do what we did 14 years, 15 years ago, now, I think it would have been a lot tougher."
“It wouldn’t have happened,” Kerrigan answered. “I don't think anyone feels safe that's been, anyone who had to fight for their civil rights that they should have had at birth, anyone that had to fight for them, they, we, are at risk.”
Kerrigan and Mock say even living in a state like Connecticut, they’re still concerned about the future.
“Don't put your placards and signs away because you might be using them again,” said Mock.
“We haven't arrived,” Kerrigan continued. “We're not like Kumbaya, right? You know, society. We’re conscious. We're moving slowly forward, but the next generation, they have their struggles.”
Kerrigan and Mock believe these are struggles the community will be ready to handle.
Emma Wulfhorst is a political reporter for FOX61 News. She can be reached at ewulfhorst@fox61.com. Follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
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