New Jersey's gay rights activists celebrate Oscar win for 'Freeheld'

The Oscar went to a New York filmmaker but gay rights advocates in New Jersey feel like they're the winners.

"Freeheld: The Laurel Hester Story," won the Academy Award for best short subject documentary, an honour that is likely to help bring a much wider audience for a film about the struggles of a dying policewoman's quest for benefits for her partner.

The award comes as Garden State Equality, the gay rights group that is prominent in the film, is pushing lawmakers to allow gay couples to marry in New Jersey.

"This movie's winning the Oscar is the equivalent of $100 million in advertising for your cause," said Garden State Equality chairman Steven Goldstein. "I'm really giddy and I'm not a giddy kind of guy."

Films such as "An Inconvenient Truth," with Al Gore and "Bowling for Columbine" by Michael Moore notwithstanding, even Oscar-winning documentaries are usually not exactly blockbusters.

But they often deal with hot-button social topics. Winners over the years have delved into child abduction, cerebral palsy and global warming.

In New Jersey, the legal status of gay couples has been a big deal over the last several years. In 2004, the state started allowing domestic partnerships, which allowed some tax, insurance and other benefits for gay couples. But local governments were not required to extend health or other kinds of benefits to their employees.

Cynthia Wade's movie follows Hester, a detective at the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office, as she pleaded in 2005 and 2006 for the benefits to be extended so her partner, Stacie Andree, would be eligible for a $13,000 death benefit.

It was only after Garden State Equality rallied behind Hester that the government officials changed their minds. Hester died in 2006.

Wade made the movie shorter than she otherwise might have - just under 40 minutes - in hopes that it might get an Oscar nomination. She also resisted selling broadcast rights because having it on television or the Internet too early might make it ineligible for the award.

On the day the movie was nominated, though, she struck a deal to have it shown on the Cinemax cable network beginning in June. That helped her fulfil one of her hopes for the movie. "From the beginning, my goal was always to share this film with as wide an audience as possible," Wade said.

She e-mailed supporters a week or so ago, telling them that if the movie did win, she would go light on her thank you's in an acceptance speech and instead focus on Hester's story.

During the awards ceremony, Wade, producer Vanessa Roth and Andree, Hester's partner, passed back and forth a locket containing some of Hester's ashes so that Hester could be present.

"When Freeheld was announced as the winner, I was holding the locket," Andree, a mechanic, said in a statement. "I am so glad that a part of Laurel was with us."

Despite the preparations, Wade said she was surprised when her movie won.

"It was Lt. Laurel Hester's dying wish that her fight against discrimination would make a difference for all the same-sex couples across the country that face discrimination every day - discrimination that I don't face as a married woman," Wade said in a speech televised around the world.

As it turns out, the political battle is continuing in New Jersey. In 2006, the Legislature - under pressure from the state's highest court - voted to allow gay couples to join in civil unions, which, unlike domestic partnerships, offer all the legal benefits of marriage.

But Goldstein pledged to push for full marriage rights.

He says many gay couples are being denied the benefits required under the civil unions law, in part because employers and others do not understand the concept of civil unions.

"There are new Laurel Hester's all across New Jersey today, denied benefits by employers," he said.

Goldstein is pushing lawmakers to take up gay marriage after the general election in November; Gov. Jon S. Corzine has said he would sign such a law if it were passed.

Len Deo, President of the New Jersey Family Policy Council, a group that opposes gay marriage, said Monday that he didn't think the Oscar would help his adversaries much.

"I think their problem has been solved," said Deo, when told about the award. "People are getting health benefits in New Jersey because of the civil unions law."