The story of Lt. Laurel Hester‘s battle to allow her partner have death benefits was one I followed throughout. Now, director Cynthia Wade has won an Oscar for her documentary about Hester’s struggle. (Go here to read an earlier article about Hester.)

Hester, who worked as a detective on the force for 25 years before battling cancer, took on the locally elected Ocean County Freeholders to give the financial security of her pension to her partner, Stacie Andree, a right automatically afforded to heterosexual married couples.

The film is a look at the LGBT community‘s effort to face down bigotry interwoven with the touching journey of a couple coming to terms with the end of their time together.

Congratulations to Cynthia, and to everyone who worked on the film. And most of all, thank you to the late Lt. Hester and her surviving partner, Stacie Andree. Your courage to fight, and later present your story, is very admirable- and we are the richer for it.

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