Cynthia Wade won
an Oscar Sunday night for her short documentary
Freeheld, about the 2006 struggle of New Jersey
police officer Laurel Hester's struggle to transfer her
pension to her domestic partner during the final
months of her life.
Hester, who
worked as a detective on the force for 25 years, took
on the locally elected Ocean County Freeholders as she
battled cancer to give the financial security of her
pension to her partner, Stacie Andree, a right
automatically afforded to married heterosexual spouses. The
film is a look at the LGBT population's effort to face
down bigotry interwoven with the touching journey of a
couple coming to terms with the end of their time
together.
"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 single day -- discrimination that I don't face
as a married woman," Wade, who directed the film, said
during her emotional acceptance speech. Wade also
thanked her husband for taking care of their children and
holding down a full-time job while she worked on the
film.
Producer Vanessa
Roth added, "And to all our supporters and our
families who believed that even a 38-minute movie could
change minds and lives, and to our children who remind
us what's really important. And to Stacie, who is
here tonight, who's really an auto mechanic by day but
a hero in life and always did what was right."
Freeheld has been awarded the Special Jury
Prize at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival and the Audience
Awards at Outfest, Newfest, and the Palm Springs
International Film Festival. (The Advocate)
