In his write-up on Slate of today's landmark Supreme Court decisions, Justin Peters urged revelers to remember Mary Bonauto. "Tonight, as proponents of same-sex marriage celebrate the decision, they should be sure to raise a glass to an attorney and activist named Mary Bonauto, who has been called the mastermind of the legal strategy that eventually led to DOMA's collapse," Peters writes. As Roberta Kaplan, who successfully argued on behalf of Edith Windsor in one of today's Supreme Court cases, put it to The New York Times earlier this year: "No gay person in this country would be married without Mary Bonauto."
Mary Bonauto, a lawyer whose victory in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health in November 2003 made Massachusetts the first state to legally recognize same-sex marriage, was profiled in The Times Magazine by David J. Garrow in 2004. Garrow wrote that the effects of Bonauto's work would "mark the beginning of a new social era." Kevin Cathcart, executive director of Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, described to Garrow the impact the Massachusetts decision would have by saying, "You can't put the toothpaste back in the tube."
But at the time, even the pioneering Bonauto was cautious when it came to the question of whether same-sex marriage would be recognized on a federal level:
"What's happened in Massachusetts has been a beacon of fairness, hope and equality across the country," Bonauto says, but "I think that what it boils down to is avoiding the federal piece" for as long as possible. "I have tried to plead with lawyers not to get overly ambitious about going into court and challenging the federal Defense of Marriage Act," she says. "I think a lot of times these cases would arise as tax cases by wealthy individuals" who pay disproportionate sums because of the unavailability of marriage. "I can't think of a less sympathetic prospect," Bonauto says. "I would like the opportunity for states to wrestle with this before we have to go into federal court."
It appears Bonauto's trepidation lessened since then. In 2009, she challenged Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act in Gill v. Office of Personnel Management (the court found DOMA unconstitutional). While that case was not under deliberation in the Supreme Court this week (an eventuality about which Bonauto admitted to being slightly, but fleetingly, disappointed), her work ambitions have been motivated a broad desire for equality rather than a need for personal recognition. In the Times Magazine article, Bonauto rejected being labeled an "architect" of same-sex marriage cases, instead asserting, "I'm happy to be a bricklayer."
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