Same-Sex Marriage in N.Y.
WHAT
IT MEANS
TO YOUBY BARBARA FRANKEL
L
ast November at our event, country-music star Chely Wright told our
audience of senior corporate executives what her life was like as a closeted
professional in an industry that was far from inclusive of LGBT people.
She described putting a gun to her head—and then putting the gun
down. Today, a little more than a year after coming out, Wright is happily
anticipating her wedding to a beautiful young woman, Lauren Blitzer.
They are getting married this summer in Connecticut, which up until
June 24 was one of only five states
plus the District of Columbia that
recognized same-sex marriages.
On June 24, the New York State
Legislature approved same-sex
marriage and Gov. Andrew Cuomo
immediately signed it into law.
New York is the largest state to
recognize same-sex marriages, and
Chely Wright and Lauren Blitzer will be married this ummer.
the impact of this decision will be
profound.
The fight for LGBT rights has
gained momentum this year, with
the federal government agreeing
to end “don’t ask, don’t tell” for
the military and President Barack
supported by corporations includ-
ing DiversityInc Top 50 companies
Kaiser Permanente (No. 1), Ernst &
Young (No. 5), IBM Corp. (No. 7),
Bank of America (No. 11), The Coca-
Cola Co. (No. 12), Merck & Co. (No.
15), Accenture (No. 23), KPMG (No.
29), Dell (No. 30), Wells Fargo & Co.
(No. 40), Time Warner (No. 28), Eli
Lilly, WellPoint and Whirlpool Corp.
(No. 49), as well as DiversityInc 25
Noteworthy Companies BASF Corp.,
Boehringer Ingelheim, Capital One,
Chubb, KeyCorp and Pfizer, and
also companies such as Eastman
Kodak Co., Ameriprise Financial and
General Motors.
