The newest issue of TIME magazine, on sale tomorrow, features split-run covers with two committed same-sex couples sharing a kiss with the headline "Gay marriage already won. The Supreme Court hasn't made up its mind – but America has." The newsstand edition will be split between a male couple, Russell Hart and Eric LaBonte, and a female couple, Sarah Kate and Kristen Ellis-Henderson, with whom GLAAD has worked closely.
GLAAD first began work with Sarah Kate and Kristen in July 2011 when marriage equality was legalized in New York and the couple wed shortly after. GLAAD provided training to them and other couples, which helped them to effectively share their story with the media and pitched their story to national outlets, allowing Americans to see the importance of marriage equality. Because of GLAAD's work, Sarah Kate and Kristen's story was seen in several media outlets, including The New York Times.
“I think it’s important to keep stories about families like mine in the spotlight,” Kristen said in a 2011 AfterEllen interview. “The more people read about my average, every day, mundane life, the more they realize we’re no different than they are.”
TIME managing editor Rick Stengel writes, "Whatever the Supreme Court decides, it seems clear that the majority of Americans feel marriage is a civil right and that denying that right to people because of their sexual orientation is a violation of equal protection under the law."
GLAAD was on the ground in Washington, D.C. this week as marriage equality supporters (and opponents) rallied and the United States Supreme Court heard arguments in cases that will decide the future of Prop. 8 and DOMA. The latest poll from ABC News/Washington Post shows that 58% of Americans now support marriage equality, the highest total ever seen in a mainstream national poll.
Sarah Kate and Kristen Ellis-Henderson were married in their hometown of Long Island in October 2011. The couple currently lives in New York where Sarah Kate works as a high-level magazine executive and Kristen plays with her all-female band Antigone Rising, they have been together for seven years. The couple has two children, Thomas and Kate, who were both born in February 2009. They detail this journey in their 2011 novel Times Two, which begins, "To every good love story, there is a twist." Kristen's blog continues to tell the family's present-day story.
TIME magazine's newest issue hits newsstands tomorrow, Friday, March 29. Learn more about the Prop. 8 and DOMA cases and GLAAD's work around marriage equality at www.glaad.org/marriage.