By: Jonathan Acosta Abi Hassan

The LGBTQ community of Suffolk and the Rainbow Alliance celebrated National Coming Out Day Oct. 10 in a panel for discussion to share histories of marriage discrimination and recognition, and the impact these issues have hosted by the office of diversity services.

The panel, hosted by Suffolk Law Professor Sarah Boonin, had five guests: Kendrick Perry, Dr. Ron Suleski, Brian Vaugn Martel, Dr. Pat Reeve and Jesse Beal. Each is faculty at Suffolk University, and spoke about his or her own experience with same-sex marriage.

Boonin talked for around 30 minutes about laws in different states, which either affected same sex marriage in a positive or negative manner.

Her speech was very professional and persuasive at the same time, as she gave examples from her life.

The whole speech was divided in a timeline between the era before Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and the era after it. Boonin explained DOMA in great detail and gave examples about how DOMA changed her life and the live of many members of the LGBTQ community.

Boonin added one very important point of view about marriage equality talking about all the influence law in the United States has on same-sex marriage.

“In 1993, we almost got same-sex marriage in Hawaii,” she said.

After that she conducted a question and answer time where she interacted with the audience. Many important questions about recognition of marriage were answered by her.

After Boonin finished, she introduced the panel.

The panel was led by Boonin and she was asking questions to the participants.

The first question was what are their experiences and opinions about same-sex marriage.

Perry talked about his experience as an African American young gay boy growing up in the South and how hard this was for him, and he stated that he is not married, yet.

Suleski shared the story of how he met with his current husband back when he was living in Japan, and how moving to the United States affected their relationship after being together for more than 27 years.

For Martel, the story is a bit different. He met his partner six years ago in law school, and four years later they got married.

“I was scared that my marriage could be annulled around 2005 or 2006 because of DOMA,” said Martel.

Reeve confessed that for her, getting married was more an economic reason than a love reason. But she said,“After I got married, I realized how good it is to be married,” Reeve said.

Beal shared her story about how same-sex marriage is not about just love and acceptance; it is about overcoming problems and situation together as a couple. She is now helping her current partner to go through a divorce from her former wife in Canada.

Listeners took the time after the panel to talk in a more private way with all the speakers.