This was the photo that launched a thousand conversations in Melrose on February 2, 2000. It is reproduced here in the best quality available, which is a digital photo from a microfilm reader—our apologies for the poor definition.
What you see is the announcement of a commitment ceremony between Judy Hasselbrack and Mary Ann Tasker, two women who graduated from Melrose High School in 1990 and returned to live in the city that had nurtured them, residing at that time at 18 Hillside Park. What Dan McAlpine, the editor the Melrose Free Press, might not have known when he decided to publish the photo was that this was the first visual depiction of same-sex love ever printed by a newspaper in Melrose.
He soon found out. In this era just before the rise of social media, the best way to publicly express your feelings was through a letter to the editor, and the Free Press published an overwhelming number of letters about this photo for almost three months straight, before finally declaring a moratorium.
There were a couple of rather negative letters. There were many more letters of support, including statements from the Melrose Human Rights Commission, the Unitarian-Universalist Church, and the advisors of Melrose High School’s nascent gay-straight alliance.
Tasker told the Boston Globe’s Eileen McNamara “we hope it opens a dialogue in every household in Melrose.” It worked. By bursting open their own closet doors, they made it possible for other gay people in Melrose to allow a crack of light into their own darkness.
Some weeks into the controversy, the couple wrote a letter to the Free Press, telling the people of Melrose, “We thank you for the support you have shown us, our families, and to other gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender residents. Their future is one of hope.”
They were not wrong. That future Melrose is here, as evidenced by the Melrose Pride festivities this year. It is a world that Judy Hasselbrack and Mary Ann Tasker helped create. Every young LGBTQIA+ Melrosian who in 2021 can come out and express their authentic selves should thank them for the leap of faith in this community they made over twenty years ago.
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