Reactions to Proposition 8 ruling.
“We cried when we heard the ruling,” says Anne Chamberlain, wife of actress Megan Cavanagh (Exes & Ohs). “I was braced for a class action suit with the other 18,000 couples if they came after our legal union, but now they are on the defensive and I feel quite optimistic.”
Southern California was abuzz after the ruling that overturned Prop. 8, which had disallowed same-sex marriage. Lots of celebrities have come out in support of the ruling, including Rob Reiner.
Chamberlain and Cavanagh have been together since 2006 and legally married in August 2008, “the same day as Portia and Ellen, during the window before Prop. 8 passed,” says Chamberlain.
An instructor at the Academy of Art University where she teaches masters classes in film, Chamberlain believes that “the younger generation is less and less interested in this form of bigotry.”
“When I grew up,” says Cavanagh, who’s currently performing Menopause – the Musical onstage, “I was so afraid to come out for so long because of the stigma. Every film that you saw the lesbian either died or committed suicide. To be gay was this sort of horrible, shameful thing and it’s not anymore. And that is really exciting.”
Cavanagh eagerly commends her wife, who has “been out, oh my gawd, forever.”
“She was out in Indiana in the early ‘80s,” says the actor. “She had a shaved head and she was strident, she was a folk singer, and she did all this stuff.”
“[Chamberlain] couldn’t believe that we were fighting for marriage equality just 30 years later,” says Cavanagh. “I mean less than 30 years; we’ve come so far. So it’s exciting.”
Cavana heads to San Jose Aug. 18-22 with Menopause the Musical, then on to San Franciso Aug. 24-27 and finishing up in Sacramento Aug. 28-29.
Food For Thought….