Fifteen years ago Friday, Hillary and Julie Goodridge married amid great fanfare and great protests.
In pastel suits, with broad smiles and colorful streamers, they exchanged vows and rings just hours after Massachusetts became the first state in America to allow same-sex marriage.
The Goodridges were the face of the movement. The lawsuit that made gay and lesbian marriages a reality bears their name: Goodridge v. Department of Public Health. Historians often divide the equal-marriage movement into "before Goodridge" and "after Goodridge."
But less than five years later, they were getting divorced. In winning the right to marry, they lost their own marriage.
Now, Hillary, Julie and their daughter, Annie Goodridge, are speaking more candidly about the entirety of their experience.
"If you look at any interview that we've done, we've never talked about the trauma," says Julie Goodridge. "But I think that it's important to tell the full story."
How Making History Unmade A Family
Photo: Meredith Nierman/WGBH Caption: Hillary and Julie Goodridge with their daughter, Annie (center).
