equal rites

Meet Philip Spooner, WWII Veteran, Marriage-Equality Activist

We’ve met a lot of unlikely spokespeople for political movements in the past twelve months. Some cartoonish (Orly Taitz — lawyer, dentist, birther), some sad (Craig Anthony Miller — retiree, constructionist), and some electrifying (Shep Smith — anti-torture advocate). But our favorite so far is 86-year-old Philip Spooner, a WWII veteran who served in the Battle of the Bulge and stormed the beaches of Normandy on D-Day. No on 1, the advocacy group fighting the upcoming ballot referendum in Maine against the recently passed marriage-equality law, has been circulating this video in anticipation of the November 3 vote. Last year a pollster asked this former potato farmer and lifelong Republican if he believed in equality for gay and lesbian people. “I was pretty surprised to be asked a question like that,” he told a crowd this spring. “It made no sense to me. Finally I asked her: What do you think I fought for at Omaha Beach?”

Meet Philip Spooner, WWII Veteran, Marriage-Equality Activist