Mary Bonauto, the renowned Maine lawyer who won a historic U.S. Supreme Court case giving same-sex couples the right to marry nationwide, presented the 23rd Annual Frank M. Coffin Lecture on Law and Public Service on Oct. 29, 2015, in Portland.
Bonauto has been at the center of the movement toward same-sex marriage in the U.S. for more than two decades, and has been described as the Thurgood Marshall of the push for equal rights for gays and lesbians. Earlier this year, Bonauto successfully argued before the U.S. Supreme Court in the historic case Obergefell v. Hodges, establishing the freedom to marry for same-sex couples.
Bonauto has worked for 25 years at the Boston-based Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders. She was awarded a MacArthur Foundation fellowship in 2014.
