In fact, the first lawsuit against the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which prevented the federal government from recognizing same sex marriages, was filed in 2009 under the name of a postal worker in Massachusetts.
Fast forward to Monday.
With the Supreme Court’s decision to let stand lower court rulings that allow same-sex marriages, expect those unions to soon be permitted in most of America. The effort for marriage equality isn’t over, but victory is in sight.
Victory wasn’t certain when Nancy Gill, a business mail entry clerk at a post office in Brockton, began her fight. The 27-year U.S. Postal Service employee is the named plaintiff in Gill v. OPM, the lawsuit against the Office of Personnel Management, which denied employer-sponsored health insurance to her wife.
That was the “first concerted, multi-plaintiff legal challenge to Section 3 of the federal Defense of Marriage Act,” according to Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD), which represented Gill and others.