Pro gay-marriage film extraordinary, yet bittersweet
15th November 2008
By Michael Janusonis
Tomorrow night’s screening at the Rhode Island School of Design Auditorium of the documentary, Saving Marriage, about the struggle to allow gays and lesbians to marry in Massachusetts, was designed to celebrate the recent ruling by the Connecticut Supreme Court to allow gay marriages in that state.
But it may turn out to be a bittersweet event for organizers, the Marriage Equality Rhode Island Education Fund, which hopes to bring gay marriage to the Ocean State. For on Nov. 4, voters in California passed Proposition 8, which defines marriage as the union of a man and a woman, by a 52-percent margin. The passage of Proposition 8 ended gay marriages which had been performed in California, following a court decision there, after only several months.
John Henning, who codirected Saving Marriage with longtime friend Mike Roth, was on the phone from California recently to talk about their documentary, an emotional roller-coaster ride that details in an entertaining way the hard-fought battles that eventually led to victory in Massachusetts. At the same time, he was not happy to report that “gay marriage is done” in California, even as clerks in city halls across the state were suddenly refusing to hand out marriage licenses to gay couples.
Henning, who is a land-use lawyer in real life, said neither he nor Roth, a veteran TV cameraman, were “professional activists” when they decided to put their careers on hold and head to Massachusetts in 2004 to begin filming Saving Marriage. “We were rejoicing from afar,” said Henning who added that both he and Roth are gay, but not “partners” in the way the term has come to be used to describe romantic relationships between gays. “But then we saw all the legislators scurrying to pass amendments” to change the court’s ruling and they were moved to head East.
In November 2003. the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court had made gay marriage legal. But it was only the start of a two-year battle between people who favored the ruling and those who opposed it, mainly by trying to get the legislature, in a Constitutional Convention, to decide whether to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot that would let voters decide whether to ban gay marriage in the Commonwealth.
Henning and Roth went to Boston and began filming in March 2004 on the eve of the Constitutional Convention. They stuck with it through two years, chronicling the ups and downs, the behind-the-scenes activities, the impassioned speeches at the State House and the elections in which supporters of gay marriage became candidates for the State House in hopes of unseating the legislators who opposed gay marriage.
What they came away with is an extraordinary, intimate look. Although Saving Marriage is squarely on the side of gay-marriage supporters, people on both sides of the issue are allowed the chance to make their cases.
On the pro-marriage side, gay activist Arline Isaacson says on screen that she didn’t want the issue sent to the people for a vote, as happened later in California, because in the past major civil-rights decisions had been handed down by the courts rather than the electorate. She says that, for instance, if it had not been for the courts’ decision to allow blacks and whites to marry, which had been illegal in many states, a vote on the issue by the electorate probably would have maintained the status quo.
The film captures the passion on both sides, especially in the State House speeches and on the front lines with candidates and their supporters vying to drum up support during the election. One black female state representative argues that she wants civil rights for all people, but not for marriage between gays. Another, Sen. Dianne Wilkerson, makes an emotional plea in favor of gay marriage that is very solid. You want to cheer her, although on another front Wilkerson most recently became the center of a State House storm when she was caught on camera taking bribes.
The amendment to allow a vote on gay marriage, which would probably doom it, did pass at the Constitutional Convention. But it wasn’t the end of the issue. In order to make it to the ballot, the amendment would have to be passed a second time, in a second Constitutional Convention at the State House set for November 2005. But in the meantime, with the court ruling in effect, gay couples were allowed to get marriage licenses and to marry starting May 17, 2004.
Surviving Marriage follows all this in detail, then takes a close-up look at the campaign battles that were waged by supporters of gay marriage to unseat opponents of the measure as well as to get their supporters who were already in office reelected. The filmmakers concentrate on several races, most notably the one waged by newcomer Carl Sciortino, a gay man, who is trying to unseat a long-sitting representative. The filmmakers build suspense, especially as many peripheral pro-gay marriage candidates go down in defeat.
There are emotional highs and lows: A hard-won victory that isn’t quite the end of the story; a young woman planning her gay wedding who gets a letter from her parents saying they will not attend; an eloquent explanation by a longtime representative on why she voted against changing the state’s Constitution to limit rights.
Henning and Roth were there every step of the way. Henning acknowledged that they simply “got lucky” when they chose Sciortino, “because others we might have followed so closely lost. We shot 300 hours of footage. We filmed a lot of people who didn’t pan out.”
But, he’s asked, isn’t Saving Marriage geared to a particular audience and is merely preaching to the choir. “We feel we need to preach to the choir,” he said. “We need to get the gay and supportive community to realize what’s at stake. For many of them it will be a learning experience.”
Surviving Marriage will be shown with a program that begins at 7:30 p.m. tomorrow at the Rhode Island School of Design Auditorium. Donations taken at the door. For an advance $25 donation, you will get reserved seating, a pre-show reception that begins at 6 p.m., a cash bar, hors d’oeuvres, a raffle for Trinity Rep tickets and more. To reserve reception ticket, phone Susan MacNeil at (401) 463-5368, ext. 339 or e-mail smacneil@marriageequalityri.org.
Source: Projo