Some Good News

[piasharn]

Lt. Laurel Hester is a former police officer and 23 year veteran of the prosecutor's office who lives in Ocean County, New Jersey. She is dying of cancer, and wishes to leave her pension benefits to her significant other. Without it, her partner could lose their house.

The problem is that Hester's partner is another woman.

Hester has been fighting the courts for months. She appealed directly to the Freeholders to no avail. When she could no longer go to the meetings due to her failing health, she sent a tape pleading with them to understand the situation she is in. Although deeply moved by the video, the Freeholders stated that they had no intention of changing the law before Hester's death.

Today, all of that changed.

After begging and scraping for rights that married couples take for granted, receiving national media attention, and with the help Mark A. Seda, a Jackson Township Committeeman (and a Republican to boot... perhaps there is hope), Hester will have her wishes carried out.

From the press release:

Like many other people around the world, I've been learning a great deal recently about the issue of Domestic Partner rights that has placed Ocean County front and center on the world's stage through the incredibly courageous story of Ocean County's own hometown hero, Lt. Laurel Hester of the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office.

From what I can see, I'm only one of millions who's been touched in a very big way by Lt. Hester's story. Her dignity and the incredible bravery she's displayed at the end of her life in wanting to change the world has inspired me to realize that as an elected official I should be standing by her side.

You can find a full transcript, plus more information on the story, at this site.

Comments

[travellyr.livejournal.com]

...wow. That... is a very nice thing to read when I'm contemplating all the ways in which our world sucks. It balances me back into the neutrality of good-with-bad.


...on an unrelated note, did you know your hotmail address is hard bouncing, and has been since Jan. 6th?

[piasharn.livejournal.com]

I know... just when you think the world would be better off if all humans would drop dead, something wonderful comes along and makes you sorry that you were being so negative.

Is it really? I've got it open in another window right now and all seems fine. Bugger all. Let me try playing with my filters a bit...

[travellyr.livejournal.com]

yahoo said it sent reactivation requests that bounced twice, with something like sixteen bounced messages. I've just manually reactivated your account, so if you don't get any messages in the next few days let me know. Give it a few days, because while we DID have some feeble flutters of movement, it's not twitching right now. If there's nothing posted by Sunday night I'll make an idiot of myself and babble on Monday. By Monday you should know if you're getting messages again.

[piasharn.livejournal.com]

Got the request, and I think I've got my Yahoo! account reactivated... *pokes it* Yeah, I'm in. (Egads, there's life on the MadCit group!)