The first time I met Ruthie and Connie was in February 2016 when they had just collected yet another Award for their activism. This time it was  the SAGE Pioneer Award, presented by Services & Advocacy For GLBT Elders, the country’s largest and oldest organization for LGBT seniors. 

I had known about this iconic lesbian couple for at least a decade since  I had stumbled across a documentary of what seemed to be a couple of unassuming lesbians simply telling their tale of how they came ‘out of the closet’ when they found each other some 30 years previously.   However they turned out to be a remarkable pair of feisty colorful outspoken Jewish women from Brooklyn who divorced their husbands and left their children to start a life together which included a lifetime commitment to selflessly helping our community. One of the (very many) achievements that these two LGBT activists chalked up was way back in 1988 when they successfully sued the NY City Board of Education for domestic partnership rights.

Like everyone else, when I finally met them, it was love at first , and here’s the interview they gave me at that time https:// queerguru.com/2016/03/ruth-connie-a-love-story.

Even after retiring to Florida this relentless pair never stopped being in the forefront of Democratic, feminist and lesbian politics plus #Blacklives Matter.  And as  certified counselors  they founded The Answer is Loving Counseling Center in West Palm Beach. They facilitated countless consciousness-raising workshops over decades for colleges, women’s groups, NOW, progressive straight groups, and more.

On July 26, 2011, in New York, they became one of the first same-sex marriages in the State, and were together until Connie’s untimely death in 2018.  It was just a year after the Ruthie and Connie LGBT Elder Americans Act of 2017 was introduced in Congress

Ruth Berman  and Connie Kurtz had this infectious zest for life (which Ruthie still has) and it was impossible not to be swept away by their sheer passion and their dogged determination to make this world a better place, particularly for oppressed minorities.  They had such an abundance of love that they wanted to share,  and a ceaseless energy that propelled them to maintain a pace that few of us could ever hope to keep up with.

Now Old Lesbians Organizing for Change  (O.L.O.C.) have named the couple the 2019 Winners of Del Martin Old Lesbian Pride Award in recognition of all their work which has impacted the lives of Older Lesbians.

There is barely room on their mantle  as they have previously been the recipients of:: 

Several proclamations from New York City
The first New York City NOW Susan B. Anthony Award
The first Annual Lesbian Pride Award from Brooklyn NOW
Lambda Democrats of Brooklyn Peter Vogel Award
Named as Marshalls for the first Marriage Equality entrance in the New York City Gay Pride Parade and for the first Palm Beach County Lesbian Pride Parade
National PFLAG American Family Award
Rodeph Shalom Award from Congregation Beit Simchat Torah (New York City LGBT synagogue)
SAGE Pioneer Award
Rusty Gordan LGBT Democratic Caucus Activist Award
Named by South Florida Gay News as one of ten LGBT Gay Activists
Equality Florida’s Voice for Equality Award

So as we congratulate Ruthie (again) its time to relook at that remarkable documentary Ruthie and Connie: Every Room in the House (available on most major streaming platforms such as AMAZON PRIME) to celebrate an extraordinary couple that we are so proud to have considered as our friends