Accidental Activists

Mark Phariss, Vic Holmes, and Their Fight for Marriage Equality in Texas

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Pub Date 15 Aug 2017 | Archive Date 31 Oct 2017

Description

    At the beginning of the summer of 2013 same-sex marriage was legal in only ten states and the District of Columbia; in seven more states lawsuits were making their way through the courts. The Supreme Court’s decision in United States v. Windsor, announced at the end of June, appeared to open the door to marriage equality. In Texas, Mark Phariss and Vic Holmes, together for sixteen years and deeply in love, wondered why no one had stepped across the threshold to challenge their state’s 2005 constitutional amendment prohibiting same-sex marriage—until, that is, despite years of conditioning that had taught them to keep a low profile, despite warnings from family and friends who feared for their safety, they agreed to join a lawsuit being put together by Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLD.

    Though surprised at their new and very public role—a February 2014 feature about them in Texas Monthly was titled “The Accidental Activists”—they adapted quickly. Two years later—after tense battles in the Federal District Court for the Western District of Texas and in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, after sitting through oral arguments at the Supreme Court of the United States in Obergefell v. Hodges—they won the right to marry deep in the heart of Texas.

    But the road they traveled was never easy. Accidental Activists is the deeply moving story of two men who, schooled by cultural messages that being gay would come with heavy costs—the loss of family and friends, threats involving housing and job security, the danger of being beaten, even beaten to death—struggled at first to be true to who they were, struggled later in life to achieve the dignity of which Justice Anthony Kennedy spoke in a series of Supreme Court decisions that recognized the “personhood,” the essential humanity of gays and lesbians. And it is more.

    Around the intimate story of two men in love that lies at its center, Accidental Activists weaves other threads that enrich its fabric, setting what is personal in the context of legal and social history—the battle for gay rights in general and marriage equality in particular—and explaining the complex legal issues and developments surrounding same-sex marriage in layman’s terms.

At the beginning of the summer of 2013 same-sex marriage was legal in only ten states and the District of Columbia; in seven more states lawsuits were making their way through the courts. The...


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I loved this book. It both laid out the political and social history that led to gay marriage boht in Texas/the US and for these two men. I also liked how it slyly measured progress: mentioning that in 1997 JC Penney refused to advertise during Ellen, but then featured her in a 2012 commercial.

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4* An amazing insight and education into how LGBT rights in the US are *NOT* as widespread and respected as in the UK. Makes me feel privileged to be British, and angry at America.

This book is HEAVY on minutiae to do with the various cases and people that helped the 2015 SCOTUS ruling making gay marriage legal in the whole of the US. I found that aspect a bit tiring, tbh, and yes, I did end up skipping small amounts, but, the tale hit me hard. Hit me in my heart, in my brain and in my wallet.

As a straight female Brit, I found it almost incomprehensible that the US, which is seen at the forefront of so much in the world, can, frankly, be so bigoted, hate-filled, right-denying, prejudiced and unfriendly towards such a huge part of their people. This review is not going to be well-worded, because I am filled with so many emotions. Happiness. Anger. Sadness. Fear for friends who live in Texas and are LGBT. Disbelief. Relief that things are changing. Frightened that the new presidency is undoing so much of the good that the last did.

It's a book that makes me glad to be British, where LGBT people are protected in law, respected in the workplace, free to live the lives they want to live, have support, feel safe, don't need to watch over their shoulders and worry who might turn on them. It's also a book that makes me wish I was American, as I damn would well be pulling my finger out, as we Brits say, and taking a stand against the injustice that exists in the country. It's a book that's made me ask myself what I can be doing, and I am sad to say that other than making financial contributions, I find that there isn't much I can do to have my voice heard. It's heartbreaking and I know that the US feels so unsafe for so many friends right now.

I hope this book gets read by a varied audience, specifically an American one, that is moved to make a stand.

ARC courtesy of the publisher and NetGalley, for my reading pleasure.

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