we want to bring you the next story in our continuing Hampshire County series
demand again sat down with Jay and surround activist and spokesperson
for no hope right about the importance and influence but the large
LGBT community in North Hampton and where got started
this was taped last month at the Yiddish book center I think the women's colleges
both my Holyoke College in Smith College I'm were
really bastions a feminism in a in the sixties and seventies
and a lot of those women who graduated stayed behind
and created community in Hampshire County in in in Hampshire County in
North Hampton
and in the Amherst area primarily I'm to begin with
I it certainly didn't hurt in 1992 when ABC showed up with twenty 20
to talk about quote-unquote lesbian bill in North Hampton and I think there was a
huge wave
of people from more difficult parts of the country where they
couldn't feel safe and affirmed who started moving here
and years ago I think
I know that there were certain businesses where we felt safe
I either supporting the business or
going to the restaurant being surges free to be who we were
whether it's being affectionate with your partner in public I
or just expressing ideas now it seems we are so much more integrated into the
tapestry in the fabrica everything that happens in Hampshire County
were not as I'm separate so I will talk with them or in a minute but I i know
you'd mention to me
very interesting Feb 28 the too I think was the 2000 census you said
found that Hampshire County was second in the entire United States
per capita in the number I've lesbian or gay headed households
that really says something as it certainly does and Suffolk County was
number one which
sort of surprised me because I would have thought it would have been separate
discover
some other metropolitan area but you have to look at the population numbers
and I'm it it def lead us as
I think what makes it unique is that we are a more rural
suburban community with gay lesbian headed households
most other places in the country were gay men lesbians bisexual transgender
people feel comfortable are more
urban centres and we stand apart in that were
certainly not urban in and in
in a big way and clearly and I know numbers for letter reasons are hard to
come by
but clearly there is a real economic force
with the lesbian gay bisexual transgender community
here there is a a significant population and that translates into business and
numbers
test absolutely we are communities who are marketed to
if you look at the wedding this is for instance that's an obvious example
a mainstream wedding photographers have on their web sites now
not just examples a brides and grooms but examples have two men who are
getting married or two women who are getting married
same with Flores caterers I
so so that and that's just the wedding business I'm you see rainbow stickers in
restaurants that
demonstrate that its either an ally who owns the restaurant or
its gay or lesbian owned and you know when you walk in that you're going to
feel
welcome and embrace for being who you are you pointed out there there were
businesses
that word thought to be friendly in years past 830
twenty years or so ago and people gathered there and you said to some
extent
that's gone away there there used to be a the lesbian gay bisexual transgender
business owners association
no more and that's a sign a progress and maybe it's sad in a way to lose that
community
but its part the greater community now well put him
I call it the price if integration a.m. the president aggression is integration
when people come from other parts of the country are looking to feel safe
and perhaps I'm start a family here and live comfortably
they're surprised that there's not a central meeting place because wherever
they've come from if it's a
a state like arkansas are Alabama they're used to having these
places that are essential I'm where they can meet
safely we are so integrated into the larger community that we no longer
have reason for that and that is oppressive success in some way the the
identity politics that we had I would say the nineteen seventies and eighties
in some ways it's gone by the wayside now
same-sex couples who have children are more likely to be hanging out
socially with their heterosexual counterparts with children
a people who don't have children the the same goes for them
so I think were able to be free and
interest-based rather than desperately
clinging to each other in a sense we're coming up on the 10th anniversary
up same-sex marriage legal in Massachusetts after November 2003
Supreme
Judicial Court decision on that issue you have a particular sense
up what happens there as a justice of the peace I think you told me you
performed
coming up and 700 marriages same-sex marriages people locally people from all
around
that that tells you something about what's happening as an absolutely
and still even ten years later there are now 17 states plus the District of
Columbia
where marriage equality exists in this country I'm
we certainly jump-started that ten years ago we can be proud to live in the
coming months Massachusetts
I'll I still have couples coming from other states because they want to pay
on image to the fact that we did this
and they want to support our economy people come here intensely they know
about the reputation
North Hampton or Amherst or any the surrounding towns
and there so coming from other states which
absolutely amazes me I think people are now
more naturally gravitating towards locales that are closer to their homes
as well
I'll but for a very long time I had couples coming from other countries
and from even from California before you can get married in California
on and 700 is a lot for me I have to tell you I had no idea
when I first put myself out there to do this
I that it would be that astronomical that it would be so profound for me
I and it's incredible I still have to pinch myself that I get paid to do
something so joyous
GM cereal thanks for your perspective thanks for spending some time with us
thank you