Same-Sex Marriage Authors to Lecture at the University of Arkansas

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — The 2003 Massachusetts Supreme Court decision in Goodridge v. the Department of Public Health that led to legal same-sex marriage in the state has cause mixed emotions across the country. Patricia A. Gozemba and Karen Kahn will be at the University of Arkansas to present a lecture titled “Marriage Equality: A 21st Century Civil Rights Struggle” and to discuss their new book that chronicles this latest civil rights battle.

The lecture, part of the Hartman Hotz Lectures in Law and Liberal Arts, will be held at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct.3, in Giffels Auditorium in Old Main. It is free and open to the public. Guests may park in the Arkansas Union parking garage off Stadium Drive.

In their book Courting Equality: A Documentary History of America’s First Legal Same-Sex Marriages, Gozemba and Kahn describe the efforts of gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgender activists to secure family and parenting rights. The book also illustrates the happiness of some of the families who have benefited from achieving equality. The two authors will be speaking about the events in Massachusetts, their historic context and the implications the court decision created for other states.

Gozemba, a professor emerita of English and women’s studies, is a founding member of The History Project, which has been documenting lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender movements in Boston since 1980. Kahn, former editor of Sojourner: The Women’s Forum, an activist, community-based, feminist newspaper, also edited Frontline Feminism: Essays from Sojourner’s First 20 Years. The two were married in September 2005 and live in Salem, Mass.

The book also features photos by Marilyn Humphries, an independent photojournalist whose work has appeared in the New York Times, The Progressive and the Boston Phoenix.

The University of Arkansas Hartman Hotz Lectures in Law and Liberal Arts were established by Dr. and Mrs. Palmer Hotz of Foster City, Calif., to honor the memory of his brother, Hartman Hotz.

Hartman Hotz graduated from the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences with a degree in history. After graduating from Yale University Law School, he joined the faculty of the University of Arkansas School of Law, where he made significant contributions to the study of law. The presentation series is sponsored by the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences and the School of Law.

Many distinguished speakers have participated in this lecture series, among them Chief Justice Warren Burger, G. Edward White, Shirley Abbott, Daisy Bates, Thomas Grisso, George Fletcher and George McGovern.