Gail and Betsy Leondar-Wright, who have been together since 1991, were among the first same-sex couples to be legally married in the United States — on May 23, 2004, in Arlington, Massachusetts, the week the state made same-sex marriage legal.
Gail and Betsy were our guests on Rag Radio, initially broadcast Friday, June 22, 2012, on KOOP-FM, Austin’s cooperatively-run all-volunteer community radio station.
You can listen to the show here:
On the show, we discuss their marriage, the gay marriage and LGBT movements in America, and the larger issues of class and progressive social change to which they are both committed.
Gail Leondar-Wright is the founder of gail leondar public relations, which promotes progressive books. She has publicized over 600 titles on sustainability, peace, economic justice, and human rights.
Betsy Leondar-Wright, an economic justice activist, is the Project Director for the nonprofit organization, Class Action. She is the author of Class Matters: Cross-Class Alliance Building for Middle-Class Activists and the co-author of The Color of Wealth: The Story Behind the U.S. Racial Wealth Divide. She holds a PhD in sociology from Boston College.
Our most important fundraising appeal of the year
December is the most critical time of year for Truthout, because our nonprofit news is funded almost entirely by individual donations from readers like you. So before you navigate away, we ask that you take just a second to support Truthout with a tax-deductible donation.
This year is a little different. We are up against a far-reaching, wide-scale attack on press freedom coming from the Trump administration. 2025 was a year of frightening censorship, news industry corporate consolidation, and worsening financial conditions for progressive nonprofits across the board.
We can only resist Trump’s agenda by cultivating a strong base of support. The right-wing mediasphere is funded comfortably by billionaire owners and venture capitalist philanthropists. At Truthout, we have you.
We’ve set an ambitious target for our year-end campaign — a goal of $250,000 to keep up our fight against authoritarianism in 2026. Please take a meaningful action in this fight: make a one-time or monthly donation to Truthout before December 31. If you have the means, please dig deep.