« Sudanese Conflict Spills Into Chad | Blog Index | More documents prove that top defense officials approved of abuse at Guantanamo detention center »

Advertisement

recent entries Palin's First Year as Mayor: Off With Their Heads! See Ya Later, Joe Palin Is the Right's Obama McCain's Domestic Policies: As Old As He Is McCain's Big Speech: More Prison Cell Than Policy Best Throw Away Line of the Day MoJo Video: Palin Puts the Party Back in GOP What They're Saying at the RNC (And What They're Not) Things To Do With the Price of Cindy McCain's Outfit

Activist Laurel Hester Dies

Laurel Hester, the New Jersey police lieutenant who fought for the right to leave her pension to her longtime domestic partner Stacie Andree, succumbed to lung cancer on Sunday. Hester, a 23 year investigator, made headlines last month when she pressed city officials in Ocean County, New Jersey to pass a domestic partnership resolution provided for by the Domestic Partnership Act which “gives counties and cities the power to extend pension and health care benefits to the gay partners of employees if they so choose.”

Following several months of heated debate and wavering, the Ocean County freeholders eventually reversed their original decision on January 25th, granting police and fire department employees the freedom to designate their own pension beneficiaries. Thanking freeholders, and present despite the advice of her medical team, Hester told them "you have made yourselves an example of what democracy is all about.” Laurel Hester certainly did not intend to become an activist, but she nonetheless became a hero in the fight for equality.

Posted by on 02/22/06 at 5:54 PM | E-mail | Print | Digg this | de.licio.us