Chapter 14: If not … Great

If you wandered down to a Midtown union hall in Manhattan one night in 2011, you might’ve encountered an unusual sight: Broadway stars, decked out in tuxedos and cocktail dresses, calling voters all over New York. They’d just left an awards dinner early, and without stopping to change they had descended on a marriage equality phone bank — as they had been doing for weeks. It was the work of Jenny Kanelos, a small-town girl who’d moved to the big city just a few years earlier. In her wildest dreams, she couldn’t have envisioned herself leading a movement. But just a few years earlier, she’d volunteered to work on the Obama campaign, and discovered within herself an untapped well of power. Jenny found that she possessed two secret weapons: an intense commitment to justice, and a community of allies ready to follow her into battle. She teamed up with her friends Gavin Creel and Rory O’Malley — themselves stars of the stage — and before she knew it, they were leading a rally in the middle of Times Square, drawing massive crowds to phone banks, and delivering boxes full of signatures to the Capitol. But organizing alone wouldn’t be enough to win equality. Despite the groundswell that Jenny and her friends led, legislators dismissed the public support and voted down a marriage bill. Now New York was about to find out what happens when Jenny gets pissed.