Mary L. Bonauto (born June 8, 1961)[1] is an American lawyer and civil rights advocate who has worked to eradicate discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, and has been referred to by US Representative Barney Frank as "our Thurgood Marshall."
She began working with the Massachusetts-based Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, now named GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders[2] (GLAD) organization in 1990.[3] A resident of Portland, Maine, Bonauto was one of the leaders who both worked with the Maine legislature to pass a same-sex marriage law and to defend it at the ballot in a narrow loss during the 2009 election campaign. These efforts were successful when, in the 2012 election, Maine voters approved the measure, making it the first state to allow same-sex marriage licenses via ballot vote.[4] Bonauto is best known for being lead counsel in the case Goodridge v. Department of Public Health which made Massachusetts the first state in which same-sex couples could marry in 2004. She is also responsible for leading the first strategic challenges to section three of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).
On April 28, 2015, Bonauto was one of three attorneys who argued before the U.S. Supreme Court in Obergefell v. Hodges arguing state bans on same-sex marriage to be unconstitutional. This much-publicized case determined that state bans against same-sex marriage are unconstitutional and is considered one of the most important civil rights cases which came before the U.S. Supreme Court in modern history.
^Bonauto, Mary (2015). "Bonauto, Mary" (PDF). GLBT Archive.
^GLAD: "GLAD Now Stands for GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders" February 23, 2016, accessed June 22, 2017
^New York Times: "Toward a More Perfect Union," May 5, 2004, accessed June 29, 2010
^National Conference of State Legislature: "Same-Sex Marriage Laws", accessed June 22, 2017
Mary L. Bonauto (born June 8, 1961) is an American lawyer and civil rights advocate who has worked to eradicate discrimination based on sexual orientation...
movement, focusing on the decades of grassroots advocacy by lawyers MaryBonauto, Susan Murray, and Beth Robinson and the 1999 Vermont Supreme Court case...
first same-sex couple to receive a marriage license in Massachusetts. MaryBonauto, herself a lesbian, had argued and won the case that legalized same-sex...
singer-songwriter 1960 – Thomas Steen, Swedish ice hockey player and coach 1961 – MaryBonauto, American lawyer and gay rights activist 1963 – Karen Kingsbury, American...
Judge, United States District Court for the District of Connecticut MaryBonauto, Civil Rights Project Director, Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders;...
people and Olympic athletes. In 2004, Sheng photographed Evan Wolfson and MaryBonauto for The New York Times Magazine for an in-depth article written by David...
Retrieved 5 March 2018. Sève, Jim de (2 May 2004), Tying the Knot, Bob Barr, MaryBonauto, Brian Brown, archived from the original on 16 February 2017, retrieved...
member of the Liberal Party of New York; Greek-American; Zionist activist MaryBonauto, class of 1983 - gay rights activist and attorney; successfully argued...
People involved in US human rights Susan B. Anthony Anthony Benezet MaryBonauto Louis Henkin Gay McDougall Gloria Steinem Notable comments on US human...
David M. Halperin, classicist and English literature scholar 2010-2011 — MaryBonauto, attorney and civil rights advocate 2009-2010 — Edwin Cameron, human...
Bassett, physicist Alison Bechdel, cartoonist and graphic memoirist Mary L. Bonauto, civil rights lawyer Tami Bond, environmental engineer Steve Coleman...
p. 32 – via Issuu.com. "Questionnaire for Judicial Nominees", p. 6. Bonauto, Mary; Murray, Susan M.; Robinson, Beth (1999). "The Freedom to Marry for...
York. Retrieved October 15, 2018. "Renowned Civil Rights Litigator Mary L. Bonauto and Pulitzer Prize-Winning Journalist/Activist Jose Antonio Vargas...
Archived from the original on 5 July 2015. Retrieved 5 July 2015. Mary L. Bonauto, "Goodridge in Context", in Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law...
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