Ninia Baehr and Genora Dancel

Ninia Baehr and Genora Dancel were the first plaintiffs in a major equality lawsuit in America. Dancel was the first female broadcast engineer at Hawaii Public Television, and she fell in love with her boss’s daughter, Baehr. After Dancel proposed, the couple applied for a marriage license, but it was denied instantly. They accepted they could not get married, until Baehr needed medical help and was uninsured. If the couple was married, Dancel’s health insurance could have extended to Baehr. They initially sought to become a domestic partnership, but then decided to join a lawsuit for marriage equality. The case made its way to the Hawaiian Supreme Court. Many twists and turns took place, but eventually in 1998, Hawaiian voters decided to ban same sex marriage. Baehr and Dancel later split but remained friends. They each found other partners, and celebrated when Obergefell v. Hodges legalized same sex marriage across the country. Although their case never won, they pioneered the way for same sex marriage to become legal.