In the Headlines
July 7, 2015

A GOP Voice for Gay Marriage

The HIll

As a congressional aide in the late 1990s, Holland & Knight Partner Kathryn Lehman assisted with writing the Defense of Marriage Act, a law that denied legal benefits to wedded same-sex couples. A decade later, she began lobbying with the group Freedom to Marry and helped strike down the same law she once helped write.

In her work as a policy advocate for this issue, Ms. Lehman saw the opportunity to educate Republican lawmakers to make an informed decision after she was surprised to learn how little some knew about the legal benefits of marriage that same-sex couples have missed out on. "I knew the mainstream gay rights groups weren't talking to them. So I just wanted to go in and answer questions and have a conversation."

Her advocacy work for Freedom to Marry was successful, ending with the Supreme Court’s decision on June 26 to legalize same-sex marriage in all 50 states.

READ: A GOP Voice for Gay Marriage

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