This year, we combined the Carl L. Wedekind Bill of Rights Dinner with our Annual Meeting in a single, evening event. On April 25th, we welcomed keynote speaker James Esseks for a cocktail reception, program and dinner at the Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts Bomhard Theater. Esseks is the Director of the ACLU LGBT Project and part of the team representing Edie Windsor in her landmark lawsuit before the US Supreme Court this spring which seeks to dismantle the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).

James Esseks pictured below with ACLU of KY staffers. To see more event photos click here .

Miss the event? You can listen to James Esseks' remarks on SoundCloud

See a slideshow explaining United States v. Windsor here .

United States v. Windsor Oral Arguments audio , transcript .

For more information on James Esseks click here .

LEO Weekly interview with James Esseks here .

Courier Journal event coverage here , video .

The Defense of Marriage Act was passed by Congress in 1996. For purposes of all federal laws and programs, DOMA defines the word marriage to mean “only the legal union of a man and a woman as husband and wife, and the word ‘spouse’ refers only to a person of the opposite sex who is a husband or a wife.” Under DOMA, even when a same-sex couple is legally married under state law, the federal government has to treat them as unmarried and cannot grant them the federal benefits and protections of marriage. Edie Windsor and Thea Spyer shared their life together . A committed couple, they got engaged in 1967 and after 42 years, they were finally able to legally marry. They cared for each other in sickness and in health, through Thea’s paralysis from multiple sclerosis until her death. Even though their home state of New York recognized their marriage, the federal government did not because of the Defense of Marriage Act. As an 80-year old widow, Edie was forced to pay a large estate tax on the home and savings she shared with her spouse, Thea — taxes that a widow whose husband had just died would not have to pay. A decision in United States v. Windsor is expected in June.