How Ted delivered marriage to Massachusetts

I had the great fortune to work with Senator Kennedy. He played a critical role in helping protect the right of same-sex couples to marry in his beloved home state of Massachusetts.

Working with Senator Kennedy meant working in his aura. His work was always surrounded with mystique.

All progressive leaders in Massachusetts-and throughout the country and world-wanted Ted Kennedy to take on their issue, to make phone calls on their behalf to legislative leaders, to push the cause forward. He was an icon, larger than life. When Ted Kennedy called, people listened. And they acted. He was a brilliant strategist. And he was a dogged advocate whose competitiveness drove him to win, particularly when he was fighting for dignity and justice for people who have had a rough go at it.
So all of us worked our hardest to get our issues on his front burner. We'd call his staff, friends, associates, whomever we could, to see if we could get him to take our issue on.

But like a brilliant conductor or a great athlete, Ted Kennedy had perfect timing. He knew exactly when to take an issue on, and precisely how to do it. When it was approaching that time, his staff would talk to him, slip him a memo. But even then, it was Ted Kennedy himself who knew when it was really time. We advocates could get impatient.

But we knew he was right, that it was our job to push the boulder as far up the hill as we could. And that he'd take it on at just the right time, when our collective strength wasn't great enough to finish the job. He'd think about the issue, roll it over in his mind for a few days. Call confidantes. Ask for advice. Bounce ideas off of them.

And then he'd go to work, usually quietly. Sometimes he'd make a critical call that you would only find out about months later. Other times you'd hear about his work right away, but rarely from him or his staff, almost always from those to whom he spoke.

Our cause was lining up the votes to defeat an anti-gay constitutional amendment that would strip same-sex couples of the right to marry. A final vote was scheduled for July 14, 2007. Our opponents needed the votes of only 25 percent of the legislature to advance a citizen-led amendment to the ballot. We had lined up two-thirds of the legislature through fieldwork, lobbying, media, literally everything we could think of. But getting those last 15 legislators-those conservative Democrats from working class Massachusetts communities and a few libertarian-leaning Republicans-was very tough. We needed all hands on deck to keep a Massachusetts version of Proposition 8 off the ballot. We needed Ted Kennedy.

"Could you get me a list of your targets?" one of Kennedy's key staffers finally asked me. "Don't tell anyone I'm asking you for this," he said. He meant it, and I didn't.

A few days later, as I was doing my rounds in the State House, a bewildered conservative legislator stopped me. "You'll never guess who left me a message about gay marriage," he said. "Ted Kennedy." And then I started to hear similar refrains again and again. We'd get word that he'd spoken to the Governor, the Speaker of the House, the Senate President, the chair of the Democratic Party, asking for updates, strategizing, figuring out exactly what he could do and how he could be most helpful.

In the end, on that July 14, we won. We won what many thought was an impossible victory, by a vote of 151 - 45, keeping our opponents just below the 25 percent threshold. We shocked our opponents. They were sure they had the votes. Just the kind of come-from-behind, unexpected victory for the little guy that Kennedy relished so much.

Later that day, after rallies, celebrations, and parties, I sat down at my desk and listened to voice messages of congratulations, one after the next. One moved me to my core.

"Marc, Ted Kennedy calling from Washington, DC. Congratulations on what you did today. What you accomplished for the people of Massachusetts is tremendous. Good work, my friend."

I now so wish I had saved it, yet it is etched into my spirit forever. The fact that he took the time to acknowledge not just the political leaders-the governor and the legislative leaders-but the advocates as well, spoke so much about who he was and what he cared about.

This past December, facing his own mortality as he accepted an honorary degree from Harvard, Senator Kennedy said, "We know the future will outlast all of us, but I believe that all of us will live on in the future we make."

Thank you Senator Kennedy, for making a future for us all that is more compassionate, more equitable, more just-for LGBT people, for immigrants, for people of color, for those living in poverty, for every one of us. Your passion for justice and your fight burn on in us all.
You will be missed.

Marc Solomon, who serves as marriage director for Equality California, led MassEquality from January 2006 through March 2009, and worked to advance and protect marriage equality in Massachusetts beginning in 2001 with the Freedom to Marry Coalition and MassEquality.