PHOTO BY KATE ROUNDS
other marginalized people. The situation for gay people in other countries is desperate.” They want to see the day when samesex marriage goes national. “Now you travel to the South or a red state, and the marriage is null and void,” Barbara says. “It isn’t recognized federally. It should teleport with us like it does with heteros.” Still, both women maintain a positive attitude, drawing strength from a phrase quoted by Dr. King: “The arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.”
LIFE IN THE HOOD Kay and Barbara’s home is in a classic Jersey City block in the Heights, with row houses, short driveways, and neat little backyards. “Our pure presence here has shifted attitudes of people,” Barbara says. “We’re ordinary people, working folks with ordinary jobs making a modest living. Our presence here makes our neighbors reckon with the difference of our relationship. They see us together. They see marriageequality signs in the window. We raise consciousness by being on the block.”
56 • Jersey CITY Magazine ~ SPRING 2014