Bay Windows is New England's largest publication for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender readers. For close to 30 years Bay Windows has brought its readers award-winning articles and editorials on everything from the AIDS crisis to Vermont civil unions and Massachusetts marriage battles. Established in 1983 by founding publisher Sasha Alyson, Bay Windows was sold in 1985 to James Hoover. In 2003, co-publishers Jeff Coakley and Sue O'Connell purchased the paper from Hoover. 

Bay Windows is distributed throughout the greater Boston area and all of New England at over 400 locations. We are the only weekly publication in New England serving the vibrant LGBT community. 

The paper of record in the state where same-sex marriage was born
By Bay Windows staff

When Sasha Alyson launched Boston’s Bay Windows in 1983, he could not have dreamed the paper would eventually be at the center of the effort to bring marriage equality to Massachusetts and the rest of New England.  According to Marc Solomon, former campaign director for MassEquality, “Bay Windows waved the flag, rallied the troops, held advocates and lawmakers accountable and exposed those working against equal rights.”

Alyson did recognize that the Boston gay and lesbian community (pre-BT) needed a new voice with a different perspective. The newspapers available were the Gay Community News (GCN) and the “bar rag” The Mirror.  Alyson, a reader and supporter of GCN, felt the community needed more local news, and more coverage of the illness recently named AIDS (formerly gay cancer, ARC, and GRID) . Alyson felt strongly that the community needed more political coverage and that elections “should be covered.”

The early years presented one main challenge: money. “A few years later, classified and phone sex ads became a major source of income...,” Alyson told Bay Windows, “...but in 1983 it was hard to find advertisers.”

In 1985, Alyson sold Bay Windows to Jim Hoover. Alyson continued to publish LGBT focused books through Alyson Publications (which he established in 1979) and launched Alyson Adventures,  a travel company for LGBT folks.

At the time Hoover was publisher of South End News serving the Boston neighborhood affectionately known as the “gay ghetto” (South End News remains Bay Windows’ sister publication). Hoover professionalized the business side, and brought on editor Jeff Epperly, who raised the journalistic standards of the organization. Epperly’s leadership on covering the AIDS epidemic and politics (his coverage of presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s early support of the gay community continues to haunt Romney), resulted in award-winning articles. Hoover was a founding member and later became president of the National Gay Newspaper Guild.

Hoover would tell of how advertisers often didn’t want him to return phone messages because the call would have to go through the receptionist. “I spent most of my time whispering on the phone,” he once told the staff. Clients, both straight and gay, were afraid of being connected to a gay publication.

Advertising revenue boomed in the 1990’s, thanks to a strong presence of local businesses, real estate, personals, and national advertisers. Editorial content and news reporting continued to become more focused and hard hitting.

In 2003, Jeff Coakley and Sue O’Connell purchased the paper from an ailing Hoover, who eventually died in 2009 after a battle with multiple myeloma.

Coakley and O’Connell increased advertising revenue, both in print and online, and made Bay Windows a major LGBT news source for the mainstream media. Susan Ryan-Vollmar joined as editor and further improved the breadth and depth of coverage. Just as Ryan-Vollmar took the helm, Pope John Paul II died. Bay Windows April 7, 2005 issue, titled The Holy Father’s Homophobia was “timely, informative and persuasive and exemplified the role of the GLBT press at its best: to provide a GLBT perspective that the mainstream media has missed,” wrote reader Mark Merante. The issue went on to win honors from the New England Press Association.

As Massachusetts continued to become more accepting of its LGBT residents, the community moved to the suburbs (what Coakley called ‘gay sprawl’). Bay Windows followed, by adding major supermarket chains and news boxes to the distribution plan.

Bay Windows was at the eye of the storm during the legal effort and the lawmakers debate to make same-sex marriage legal. Finally, in 2004 couples were able to marry. Media from around the world looked to the paper for insight and resources to inform their coverage.

Over the years, Bay Windows has evolved from its free-form, feature-heavy beginnings to the more hard-news-focused LGBT advocacy paper that played a pivotal role in bringing marriage equality to the state.

"The multi-year, multi-platform work done to deliver the first state into the world of marriage for same-sex couples has yet to be duplicated,” Solomon, told Bay Windows. “The courts, the lawmakers, the advocates, and the community joined to deliver a perfect storm of powerful advocacy.  Bay Windows newspaper was a key ingredient in this passionate mix. Without a strong media advocate the battle might still be going on.”

Taking advantage of the emerging blog technology helped keep the community informed. Solomon noted that “Publishing special editions, live blogging from the state house during crucial votes, all gave a voice to our efforts."   

Here are some highlights from 29 years of Bay Windows, the paper of record for LGBT community of New England.

Foreshadowing marriage: Volume 1, Issue 1
In the March, 1983 inaugural issue Alyson penned a feature titled “How We Met: Local Couples Tell Their Stories.” One of the featured couples was Ralph Hodgdon and the late Paul McMahon. The article features side-by-side photos of the couple, one taken soon after their first meeting in New York’s Central Park in 1955 (both men are decked out in stylish hats, with McMahon looking rather dapper in his bow-tie) and another taken around the time of the issue’s publication. Twenty-five years later, Hodgdon and McMahon became local icons of the civil marriage rights movement, appearing at nearly every public rally and State House debate on same-sex marriage with a sign announcing their decades-long commitment.

Happy Valentine’s Day, wear a condom!
After more than 25 years of AIDS, most of the LGBT community became aware of the basics of safer sex. The same can’t be said of the early days of the epidemic. The February 16, 1984 issue featured a full-page ad from the AIDS Action Committee giving the community a crash course on the subject. With skyrocketing infection rates and deaths, AAC didn’t dance around the topic. The Valentine’s Day ad assesses the risks and safe-sex practices for anal sex, oral sex, mutual masturbation, watersports, rimming, fisting and other activities.

Reasons to be joyful
In July of 1986, in the midst of the AIDS crisis, the late activist Eric Rofes wrote a column listing 10 things he loves about being gay. And given that it’s meant as a rallying cry during a deadly epidemic, the list is less “I double my wardrobe” and more heartfelt and inspirational. Take reason number three: “Knowing the miracle in each of our lives that somehow gave us the courage to do what we thought could never be done — to take that first step over the threshold of our first gay bar, to march in our first lesbian and gay pride parade, to tell our parents or our grandparents or our children, to kiss someone hard on the mouth and know what it meant to us.”

Live! Nude! Lesbians!
The January 8, 1987 issue features 12 women who filed a civil suit to get an injunction against the enforcement of a Cape Cod regulation banning nudity. The women claimed that the ban on nudity violated their First, Fourth, Fifth and Ninth Amendment rights. Accompanying the story is a photo of a group of butch, topless women being arrested on the beach by Provincetown police at a demonstration against the nudity ban. Not surprisingly, all the photographers visible in the background are men.

Wonder boy
Michael Chabon, now known as the ridiculously gay-friendly Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist responsible for books that are heavy on gay content, such as 1995’s Wonder Boys and 2000’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. The July 7, 1988 edition Bay Windows introduced this relatively unknown 24-year-old who was releasing his first novel, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh. Bay Windows book critic Philip Gambone gives the book rave reviews and even gives Chabon bonus points for writing steamy sex scenes involving Art, the is-he-or-isn’t-he-gay protagonist. Chabon may now be a well known name, but Bay Windows was a fan from day one.

Lesbian midwives help people out
In 1989, the fact that gay and lesbian people (there wasn’t much coverage, if any, of the bi and trans populations) could hold ordinary jobs and lead ordinary lives was considered news. A February 16 cover story profiling lesbian midwives Anne Arkin and Valerie Hodenius exemplified the notion. While both women worked primarily with straight clients, they also discussed their experience working with lesbian parents-to-be. Arkin told a story showing how lesbians were turning the traditional concepts of motherhood on its head: “Arkin said that one lesbian she worked with in San Francisco told her that she had gotten pregnant ‘the old fashioned way’ — with an artichoke heart jar and a turkey baster. Another lesbian client, who consulted with Arkin soon after, also said she got pregnant ‘the old fashioned way.’ ‘Oh,’ said Arkin, ‘you mean the artichoke jar and a turkey baster.’ ‘No,’ the woman said, ‘intercourse.’”

Chronicling an epidemic
As part of its ongoing coverage of HIV/AIDS, the paper published the column AIDScope, which included the latest news on the epidemic and a chart from the Centers for Disease Control showing the numbers of AIDS cases counted in the U.S. since the beginning of the epidemic. In April 1990, the CDC found that more than half of the 124,000 AIDS cases in the U.S. were in gay men. Each issue of the paper also included a fair amount of obituaries, nearly all of gay men who had succumbed to AIDS. The April 19, 1990 issue included five.

Lesbians and breast cancer
In 1991, The Human Rights Campaign Fund (now known as the Human Rights Campaign) honored breast cancer researcher and surgeon Dr. Susan Love. At the time, there was much speculation in the lesbian community that lesbians were at a higher risk for breast cancer simply for being lesbians. Love dismissed the idea. If anything, she said in the December 26 issue, some lesbians may be at a greater risk for getting sicker from the disease than heterosexual women because they do not get regular gynecological care. “What brings most women in to the gynecologist between ages 20 and 40 is birth control. If you’re not doing that, then you’re not sort of compelled to go to the gynecologist. You don’t go as often, so you’re less likely to get checked and you’re less likely to get a mammogram. You may even be worried about homophobia in the medical system.”

Promoting the paper
An in-house, Dec. 26, 1991 advertisement for Bay Windows asks, “Will The Real Gay Community Please Stand Up?” The ad reads: “The truth of the matter is that there is no single gay community. We are young and old; rich and poor; white and blue collar; liberal and conservative; white, black, brown, and anything else you can think of. Bay Windows understands this diversity. That’s why we don’t toe any party lines, we don’t take ‘contributions,’ and we don’t allow our reporters to work with outside groups or organizations. Bay Windows isn’t a hobby: it’s a newspaper with full-time, paid reporters and editors who take their work seriously. And we take you just as seriously.”

Colin Powell: Who wants to pee with a gay in the room?
During a House Budget Committee meeting, U.S. Rep. Barney Frank grilled Gen. Colin Powell, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff about why gay people were prevented from serving openly in the military. Powell’s response, in the February 13, 1992 issue of Bay Windows, was essentially that straight people think gay people are icky. “It is just my judgment and the judgment of the chiefs that homosexual behavior is inconsistent with maintaining good order and discipline. What do I mean by that? I mean it is difficult in a military setting where there is no privacy, where you don’t get choice of association, where you don’t get choice of where you live, to introduce a group of individuals who are proud, brave, loyal, good Americans, but who favor a homosexual lifestyle, and put them in with heterosexuals who would prefer not to have somebody of the same sex find them sexually attractive, put them in close proximity, ask them to share the most private facilities together, the bedroom, the barracks, the latrines, the showers.”

Youth commission formed
Gov. William Weld, a Republican, reacting to the Legislature’s failure to pass a bill forming a Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth, created one via executive order. During a press conference announcing the move, Weld declared, “There’s really no greater tragedy I can think of than the loss of a young life to suicide. The pressures on youth can be tremendous, and for homosexual… teenagers, those pressure may be multiplied a number of times over.” Weld’s press secretary Virginia Buckingham later assured Bay Windows in the February 13, 1992 issue that the new Commission will be charged with making “recommendations regarding funding” and that “their recommendations are going to be taking very seriously.”

OutWrite comes to Boston
After two years in San Francisco, the OutWrite Conference moved to Boston in 1992. The March 5 issue highlighted coordinator Sue Hyde. The conference attendees included a who’s who of the LGBT publishing world: Allan Gurganus, Dorothy Allison, Michael Bronski, Walta Borawski, Leslea Newman, Alison Bechdel, Eric Orner, Felice Picano, Phil Gambone, John Preston and Pat Califia.

The gays march in South Boston
After Judge Hiller Zobel ruled that the St. Patrick’s Day parade was a public event thanks to the $8,000 that the City of Boston contributed to the parade, 25 members of the Irish-American Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Pride Committee of Boston marched in the annual parade. Bay Windows covered the parade in the March 19, 1992 issue. Dozens of police officers protected the group, which the crowd pelted with “smoke bombs, firecrackers, condoms, latex gloves, beer cans, bottles and rocks”. Mayor Ray Flynn issued a statement about the violence from JFK Airport in New York, after he returned from a trip to Ireland. “The Irish, who have seen hardships created by hatred and discrimination, are appalled by this sort of behavior in the US,” Flynn said. “Parade organizers in Cork [County, Ireland] have accepted gays in the parade there to show that the Irish tradition is one of inclusion.”

Hitting the pink ceiling
During a April 23, 1992 interview with Bay Windows previewing several Boston appearances, including one emceeing the Bayard Rustin Breakfast, Linda Villarosa, who came out as a lesbian in an essay show wrote jointly with her mother for Essence magazine, speculated that her decision to come out ruined her chances to become editor-in-chief of the magazine. “It’s all these subtle things, but I really think that has happened. If you ask people they will deny, but I think that is clearly happening. In a way that makes me mad, but in a way, I never wanted to be editor-in-chief… But I think that did happen, because I think they would be much too nervous to have a lesbian as the editor-in-chief.”

Friend of Bill
In the January 28, 1993 issue, Worcester resident Michael Quercio tells of meeting Bill Clinton during a campaign stop at a Boston fundraiser. During the dinner, Quercio told Clinton that he was HIV positive. “My right hand was shaking his right hand and then when I told him I was positive, he took his left hand and clasped both our hands that were already in a handshake. He held my hands — both my hands — throughout the whole two-minute conversation that we had. Never did his eyes move from my eyes. He was glued to the conversation.” After his election, Clinton invited Quercio to a “Faces of Hope” luncheon attended by 52 others who had impressed Clinton during the campaign.

Hot new talent
An advertisement in the  February 4, 1993 issue for a show promoted by Revolutionary Acts titled “New Women’s Voices” touts four new women musicians including The Chenille Sisters, Kristina Olsen, Tish Hinojosa and … Ani DiFranco (“To-the-bone lyrics… a voice that can rock the boat one minute and the cradle the next”).

Practicing for 2004?
George W. Bush, who was challenging Texas Gov. Ann Richards for the Lone Star State’s top political post, distanced his campaign from anti-gay comments made by a state senator who also chaired Bush’s East Texas campaign operation. The senator, Bill Ratliff, complained that Richards had appointed openly gay people to government jobs. “I simply don’t agree to appointing avowed homosexual activists… to positions of leadership,” Ratliff said. “I think it elevates the lifestyle. It tends to elevate the lifestyle to the equivalent of the traditional family.” Bush told the Associated Press, published in the Sepember 1, 1994 issue, that the appointment of gay people to state posts was “not an issue” for him and that Ratliff “is a fine state senator. He’s still going to stay on my campaign. He is speaking for himself.”

No place like home
Just months after opening the Sydney Borum Health Center on Boylston Street in Boston, the Justice Resource Institute announced plans to open a community center for gay and lesbian youth. Paul Ricciardi, coordinator of JRI’s youth programming told Bay Windows in the December 1, 1994 issue he was unsure how many teens would take advantage of the center. “Currently other youth programs offered through JRI see upwards of 30 teens a week. A dance held [for gay teens] last month at the Arlington Street Church saw an attendance of 300 teens.”

How are those connections working out for you?
December 1, 1994.  After the Republican sweep of Congress, national Log Cabin Club founder Rich Tafel told Bay Windows of the Newt Gingrich-led GOP: “If they’re going to listen to anybody, they’ll listen to me.” Of Tafel, Bay Windows reported: “An ordained Baptist minister, he professes to have a network of gay Capitol Hill staff members — many of them deeply closeted — which he has developed throughout Congress. Tafel maintains that the partisan nature of his organization and his connections put him in the right place at the right time.”

Famous Lesbian Comedian!
Sporting big hair Suzanne Westenhoefer’s smiling mug advertised a performance in the February 2, 1995 issue.  She appeared at Boston’s Berklee Performance Center (tickets just $15!). Her special hook? She’s the “1st Out Lesbian to have HBO Special”!

Lesbian Avengers take on Paul Cameron
Discredited researcher Paul Cameron presented a talk titled “Do Homosexual Teachers Pose a Risk to Pupils?” at the annual conference of the Eastern Psychological Conference in Boston. Conference attendees challenged Cameron’s findings. “Several audience members said the small number of homosexuals included in the study would invalidate any of its conclusions about gays,” Bay Windows reported in the April 6, 1995 edition, noting that one straight man, to much laughter, told Cameron that his study seemed to conclude that men should not be in classrooms. Cameron was greeted at the conference by a protest from the Lesbian Avengers who wielded signs reading “Fight the Religious Right in Science and the Classroom” and “Paul Cameron Is A Threat To Humanity.”

Activist donates award to gay youth
David LaFontaine, founder of the Coalition for Lesbian and Gay Civil Rights and an original board member of the Governor’s Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth, announced that he would donate the $25,000 grant he received from the Stonewall Awards to gay youth groups. Bay Windows reported in the July 3, 1996 issue: “When asked why he feels he received one of this year’s Stonewall Awards, [LaFontaine] responded, ‘[The Commission] has done something that people thought was impossible: secure public funding for gay rights programs in the schools. This is what terrifies the radical right the most.’”

www
In 1998, Bay Windows launched www.baywindows.com, the first LGBT website in New England.

Slamming Fox News
In a steaming November 12, 1998 editorial, editor Jeff Epperly lays into WFXT for its sweeps-week expose on gay men having sex in public. “The lead-ins made it sound as if the men involved were having sex with ‘crowds of people’ including ‘children’ in full view. Yet all that WFXT could come up with was one poor 68-year-old man trudging around a Weston park. That elderly man stupidly came up to a WFXT employee (who was wearing a hidden camera) and began masturbating. … The 68-year-old was arrested and was then interrogated by [the reporter] as he was being hauled away. … Until Fox stops airing shows like ‘World’s Deadliest Police Chases’ and ‘Married With Children’ — and their blood-drenched newscasts — nobody affiliated with that network has much ground to stand on when worrying about the well-being of children.”

Rita Hester murdered
On December 3, 1998, Bay Windows reports on the murder Rita Hester, a trans woman who was well known in Boston. In its reporting, though, Bay Windows makes itself the target of ire from the trans community by describing Hester as “a gay man who lived as” a woman and putting quotes around Rita’s name.

Trans community reacts to Hester coverage
Two letters to the editor in the December 11, 1998 issue take Bay Windows to task for its characterization of Rita Hester as a “gay man.” “Do you guys think we are all drag queens just because so many of us are stuck in your bars because it is one of the only safe places for us to be? Or just because we happen to have one thing and one thing only in common with you: our cocks?” asked one letter writer. Another notes the irony of Bay Windows having reported that the Boston Globe and Boston Herald were criticized by trans activists for “referring to Rita as male. Yet you did no better, even with the clue. At the very least, you could have noted that you weren’t sure how to talk about Rita, now that she is no longer here to speak for and name herself.”

Protests outside Bay Windows
Trans activists protested outside the offices of the Boston Herald and Bay Windows over both papers’ continued refusal to refer to Rita Hester as a woman in its news coverage of her death. Bay Windows reported in the December 17, 1998 issue, “Calling their protest the ‘Truth Rally,’ participants carried signs that read ‘Cover Our Lives, Not Just Our Deaths,’ ‘Burn the Herald’ and ‘Burn Bay Windows.’ Led by police, protesters marched from the Boston Herald building 2 miles to the offices of Bay Windows in Boston’s South End neighborhood. While walking, they shouted slurs such as ‘Bay Windows get a clue; take time to enlarge your view.’ Jeff Epperly, who was editor at the time, today sees the trans community in a different light: “When transgender leaders became angry with me, instead of listening to them, I dug in my heels. Thus started a long-standing feud that I truly regret. Or, said another way: No excuses. I’m sorry. I was wrong.”

Activists call for grassroots effort to defeat anti-marriage bill.
Longtime gay activist David LaFontaine, a founding member of the Governor’s Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth, called for a grassroots campaign to educate lawmakers on the needs of same-sex couples in order to defeat a proposed anti-marriage bill. “I think that same-sex couples are relatively invisible in our society, and until we can make people realize just how many peoples’ human lives are affected by DP and marriage issues, the [governor and state lesislators] won’t understand the importance of the legislation,” LaFontaine told Bay Windows in the February 11, 1999 issue, “There has to be a real grassroots effort in the same way we have made progress around youth issues through rallies and lobby days at the State House. It’s a terrible mistake to rely on a couple of visible gay activists, however skilled and well placed they may be. If we can rally a couple thousand teenagers every year for a youth march and rally, then we should certainly be able to rally a couple thousand gay and lesbian adults on Beacon Hill.”

He’s a Survivor
Richard Hatch, winner of the inaugural Survivor series, gave Bay Windows a rare sit down interview in the September 27, 2000 issue, after news of his lawsuit against his hometown of Middleton, R.I. became public. Hatch alleged that town officials violated his rights by arresting him and charging him with abusing his son during an early-morning workout and then releasing confidential information about the case to the media. “I’m still in control of my life,” Hatch said. “What’s meaningful to me is still the same. This is just another blip on the radar, another experience.”

And it begins
The Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders announce on April 11, 2001 that they have filed suit against the Massachusetts Department of Health in Superior Court on behalf of seven same-sex, Massachusetts couples. The couples were denied marriage licenses. The suit is called Goodridge v. Department of Health.

LGBT Boston — still segregated
The February 28, 2002 issue of Bay Windows reports that African-American LGBT people feel isolated from the larger, whiter LGBT community. “But in a city that continues to struggle with racial issues in just about every walk of life — housing and education, most notably — adding gay to the mix isn’t always easy, or beneficial. … [One African-American activist] agrees that Boston gay community is segregated, and goes a step further. ‘I think the gay community is more racist than the mainstream community,’ he says. ‘I think it’s more segregated, I think it’s more intentionally segregated. In terms of being a member of the same-gender-loving community of African descent, I think that mainstream gay community in some ways goes out of its way to not be involved with black issues. To not show you black faces. I think that they don’t take the black community seriously.”

Senate president supports civil unions
Just two months before the Supreme Judicial Court issued its landmark ruling in the Goodridge marriage case, Senate President Robert Travaglini announced that he would support a civil unions bill but that he wouldn’t act on any legislation impacting same-sex couples until the court ruled. Bay Windows reported in the September 11, 2003 issue “State Sen. Cheryl Jacques, D-Needham, a co-sponsor of civil union legislation, is encouraged by Travaglini’s statement. ‘I think what the Senate President has done in coming out in support of civil unions is very courageous,’ said Jacques. I think it shows his heart is in the right place that he supports equality for all families in Massachusetts, including gay families.’”

Couples can wed
November 18, 2003 the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court rules that same-sex couples should be allowed to wed. Bay Windows publishes a special November 17 edition (in advance of the weekly November 18 issue). Each side braces for battle.

Save the date!
In the wake of the Massachusetts Supreme Court ruling, same-sex couples and the wedding industry moved into high gear to prepare for the May, 2004 weddings. A Chelmsford, MA couple tells Bay Windows in the December 4, 2003 issue that they’ve tentatively settled on a wedding date of May 22, 2004 but they’ve yet to wrestle with “decisions about florists, caterers, music, rings, invitations, cakes, outfits, and any number of the other components that go into planning a wedding.” A public relations manager for Bloomingdale’s tells Bay Windows that the store is “planning an event to market their registry to same-sex couples.” She said the store designated a section of their registry website for same-sex couples planning commitment ceremonies about four years ago. Bay Windows launches a weekly advertising section devoted to wedding planning.

At Last! May 17, 2004
Celebrations mark first day as marriage equality begins in Massachusetts. The city of Cambridge got a jump on the festivities by offering a May 16 late night party at midnight allowing couples to register for marriage licenses. Media from around the world focused on Cambridge. In Boston, on the morning of May 17, Mayor Tom Menino greeted couples applying for licenses. Bay Windows published It Takes Two, the largest Gay & Lesbian Wedding Planning Guide.

The Bay Windows float in the June Gay Pride Parade featured a rolling billboard with a mock Bay Windows cover with stories about how the world didn’t end on May 18, 2004, the day after marriage equality, as anti-gay activists had predicted.

With Pride and Love
Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick and his family sat down with editor Laura Kiritsy in the June 12, 2008 edition of Bay Windows. “This is the first time that Katherine Patrick has spoken to the media about being an out lesbian and the support she has received from her parents, Gov. Deval Patrick and First Lady Diane Patrick.” Talking about her reaction to her dad’s standing up for LGBT rights, Katherine Patrick said "...of course, he didn't know that I was gay then," the 18-year-old recalls. "So, for someone so publicly to fight for something that doesn't even affect him was just like, 'That's my dad,' you know?" she says with a laugh. "That's all I could think. I was very, very proud to be part of this family, and this state in general."

Ten Stories of Care
Boston’s venerable Fenway Community Health (FCH), established in 1971, dedicated its new headquarters. FCH President Stephen Boswell told Bay Windows in the May 9, 2009 issue that, at 100,000 square feet, it is probably the largest building ever built for an LGBT-focused organization. FCH cares for 15,000 patients and receives 70,000 patient visits each year.

Another step forward
In the November 23, 2011 issue of Bay Windows the cover photo shows Gov. Deval Patrick signing the Transgender Equal Right Bill into law. Patrick is surrounded by activists and members of the transgender community. Gunner Scott, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition (MTPC) told Bay Windows, "We are so grateful for his leadership in getting this bill passed and for his unwavering commitment to ensuring that all residents of the Commonwealth, including transgender people, are treated with dignity and respect under the laws of our state."