Boston Center for Adult Education celebrates marriage equality with LGBTQ art, and cocktails.
Get your summer started right, with rainbow cocktails, culture in the form of LGBT art exhibits, and an overall celebration of same-sex marriage in the great city of Boston. Throughout May and June 2014 the Boston Center for Adult Education (BCAE) will host a series of special programs commemorating 10 years of marriage equality in Massachusetts. It’s a commemoration of art and equality that you won’t want to miss.
The special exhibit will kick off on the eve of the anniversary of the first gay marriages in Massachusetts on Friday, May 16th, 2014 with “Sip the Rainbow.” The cocktail reception will mark the opening of the BCAE’s new photo exhibitions, The Hard-Won Fight: America’s First Legal Same-Sex Marriages by Marilyn Humphries and Susan Symonds and Marriage Equality/10th Anniversary Portraits by photographer Joel Benjamin, which will be on display throughout the months of May and June 2014
In 2003-04, photographers Marilyn Humphries and Susan Symonds documented the dramatic fight for marriage equality as it played out from the ruling by the Massachusetts Supreme Court in the Goodridge case to the iconic first weddings. The powerful portraits will be exhibited alongside Joel Benjamin’s recent portraits of some of the pioneering gay and lesbian couples who married in 2004.
Entry into the “Sip the Rainbow” reception, held from 6:00PM to 8:00PM, is a $15 donation in advance/$20 at the door which includes three unique cocktails created by local mixologists from Ki Bar Event+Cocktail Design INC, using the colors of the Gay Pride Flag as their inspiration. Tickets can be purchased in advance by visiting the BCAE’s website here. The exhibition is free and open to the public during the BCAE’s normal business hours, Monday through Friday from 9:00PM to 5:00PM and on select weekends.
The series will continue on May 20th, 2014 when the BCAE offers a rare and personal opportunity to hear the stories from those involved in the fight for marriage equality at “A Public Conversation: 10 Years of Gay Marriage.” This special program takes a look back at the dramatic victory in the fight for marriage equality as it played out from the extraordinary ruling by the Massachusetts Supreme Court in the Goodridge case to the day of the first weddings on May 17, 2004.
Attendees will hear personal accounts from some of the major players, including plaintiffs Rob Compton, David Wilson, Hillary Goodridge, and Julie Goodridge; and former Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Justice John M. Greaney. The evening will be moderated by Jared Bowen, Executive Editor and Host of the WGBH’s weekly television series, “Open Studio.” The panel discussion will be held on Tuesday, May 20th, 2014 from 6:30PM to 8:00PM and is $10, $8 for members. Registration can be completed by visiting the BCAE’s website.
Other programs in the series include community-targeted classes offered at the BCAE throughout May and June including: How to Throw a Gay Wedding with Joe Rogers of Contagious Events (Wednesday, June 11th, 2014); Whether to Wed: A Legal & Tax Guide For Gay and Lesbian Couples with author Scott E. Squillace, Esq. (Wednesday, June 4th, 2014); Books You Should Know: LGBT Classics with novelist Cathy Jacobwitz (Tuesdays from May 6th to June 24th, 2014); and Out Loud: Reading Gay Plays with playwright/director Joe Antoun (Mondays June 2nd to June 23rd, 2014).