Oklahoman and out musician Eric Himan talks marriage plans with Mary Bishop and Sharon Baldwin, one of the couples bringing equality to his state, and possibly the country.
BY ERIC HIMAN
OCTOBER 05 2014 1:00 PM ET
I can’t even begin to tell you how many times I have been told that Oklahoma, a red state where I’ve lived with my husband since 2007, would bethe last state to legalize same-sex marriage. So you can only imagine my joy when Sharon Baldwin and Mary Bishop, an Oklahoma couple living in my city of Broken Arrow, won their federal lawsuit challenging Oklahoma’s ban on their marriage in January.
Their case prevailed again at the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on April 17, and it is among the several marriage cases the Supreme Court is considering whether to take this term (the court is moving slowly but could possibly announce whether it will hear the case on Monday).
I had the pleasure of sitting down with Mary, 52, and Sharon, 45, numerous times this year to discuss their feelings on the case, and when they are not working as newspaper editors (Mary is an assistant editor at the Tulsa World; Sharon resigned from the World in May after 21 years to write a book about the lawsuit) or rehabilitating orphaned or injured raccoons (their Facebook pics of them are awesome!), their case to legalize same-sex marriage in Oklahoma has become a full-time job they are happy to take on.