By Daniel Shigo, Chorister
Before marriage equality was recognized by New York in 2011 and, on the national level, in 2015 in the landmark Obergefell v. Hodges decision, Alan Gordon, then National Executive Director of AGMA, was instrumental in enabling 11 same-sex partners to obtain health insurance coverage at the New York City Opera in 2005.
How did it happen? New York City passed the Equal Benefits Law, enacted on October 26, 2004. It meant that any company receiving more than $100,000 from the Cultural Development Fund was required to offer same-sex partners equal benefits, in this case, health insurance. I asked Alan if he would go to bat for us, and he eagerly agreed.
But first, the backstory and a bit about me!
I joined the New York City Opera regular chorus in 1988 after hearing about auditions from a friend who worked for their Guild, and sang for general director Beverly Sills. In 1994, I met the man who would become my husband at the gym across from the stage door on 63rd Street. I invited him to a matinee of Bizet’s Carmen for a first date and sat downstage at a table in the first scene, working a French cigarette—the only time I smoked—before they banned smoking onstage. Working in the Arts himself, he didn’t have insurance continually, which was of paramount importance after he was hit by a cab while crossing the street and thrown 20 feet. (Miraculously, his only injury was a bruised calf.)
In 2001, I learned that the New York City Council was considering passing a law requiring arts organizations to offer equal benefits, so I went to the general director of the New York City Opera and proposed that he be the “good guy” and offer benefits before he was required to. He blew me off, saying that the theater had additional expenses after the Jasper Johns painting in the lobby, Numbers 1964, had been attacked with a knife. I kid you not.
Enter AGMA’s Alan Gordon.
My husband Jonathan and I went to Toronto and were married June 28, 2005, the same day, serendipitously, that the Canadian Parliament extended marriage equality to all provinces and territories. News cameras were at the courthouse, interviewed our Canadian hosts and us, and we all ended up on the news that night and the next morning on Good Morning America.
We got back to New York City, and Alan wrote a letter to the NYCO general director informing him of our action and the New York City law. To his credit, he acquiesced, and 11 couples obtained much-needed health insurance. There was a gala on the theater’s promenade some weeks later, and I was standing on the balcony overlooking Lincoln Center plaza with a glass of champagne in my hand when the general director came through the door, walked right up to me, put his hand out, looked into my eyes, and apologized.
Mayor Bloomberg litigated the law and won in 2006. Arts organizations were no longer required to offer equal benefits to obtain funding, yet NYCO continued to do so.