Freeholders

After watching the film Freeheld about Laurel Hester’s fight for equality. I found it difficult to watch because it came across as clear how her and Stacie cared for one another. The emotional and physical stress and pain was clearly written all over Laurel’s face. She wasn’t asking for anything out of the ordinary. All she wanted was for her partner to have the same benefits that any other heterosexual partner would be given in similar circumstances.

In terms of the benefits, Stacie could have lost the home they worked together to make their home. It is heartbreaking because it is clear that it was not an issue of the state affording it. As the video showed, and a Freeholder admitted, it was a discriminatory issue. Gay marriage is a different issue, yet a partnership that seems a lot stronger than heterosexual marriages should afford a surviving partner to get benefits.

It was hard to watch because I looked at it from a cynical point of view. The whole time I thought it was going to be a doubly sad ending. It seemed as though she was going to die without seeing what she wanted so bad. In that sense, it gives people hope that equality is achievable. They weren’t asking for a handout, just something that most other people do not have to fight for. I think that Laurel’s case was so much more prominent because she was a detective and helped protect the same people who were trying to deny her civil rights. It is a little sad that a governor had to make a call to make the Freeholders change their minds. This shows that people have to fight for equality and eventually people will listen. Laurel represents everyone in the sense that she wanted the same things everyone else was getting and, with her Stacie’s support, continued to fight even though she was so weakened when the law finally passed. Heterosexist oppression still exists but this film shows that it isn’t going to be like that forever.