Monmouth Junction Same-Sex Couple at Top of Politicker Power List

This has been a year of milestones for South Brunswick's Marsha Shapiro and Louise Walpin.

After two decades as a couple, the pair were among New Jersey's first same sex weddings last month following the state Supreme Court upholding a lower court’s finding that a delay to legalized same-sex marriage violates the equal protection rights of gay couples.

As prominent figures in the lawsuit that brought marriage equality to the state, Shapiro, 58, and Walpin, 60, were recently named number one on the 2013 PolitickerNJ.com Power List, an annual ranking of New Jersey’s most powerful non-elected officials.

"The leading faces of the New Jersey marriage equality movement took the fight to an initially resistant legislature, then successfully overrode the governor’s override in a court of law, and on 12:01 a.m. on Oct. 21, in an historic civil rights victory for Garden State Equality, exchanged vows to become among the first same-sex married couples in the State of New Jersey," the Politicker report said of the couple.

In choosing Walpin and Shaprio, Politicker wrote that while they typically reserve the top spot on the list for a person who "reveals something symbolic and iconic about politics in the state right now," the couple contributed to a "significant and historic political event in their home state."

Walpin and Shapiro, who have lived in South Brunswick for over 20 years and have raised four children together, joined the lawsuit filed two years ago in the Superior Court of Mercer County seeking marriage equality on behalf of Garden State Equality and six other same-sex couples.

The suit alleged that existing civil union laws simply do not provide the same rights and protections other citizens receive, and that it has opened same-sex couples up to discrimination and countless indignities.

When applying for jobs over the years, Walpin said she was constantly forced to out herself by asking if the prospective employer offered civil union benefits.

The specter of revealing personal details about their lives to complete strangers has also come up during the couple's darkest moments. Their son Aaron died in 2008 at the age of 21, after being born with profound medical and cognitive disabilities. 

While at the funeral home making arrangements for Aaron, the couple had to explain what a civil union was at the lowest point of their lives. 

"I had to introduce Louise as a civil union partner and the funeral director said what is that?" Shapiro said in a prior interview. "Then he asked for proof of our relationship. At a time when we were grieving, we had to provide our civil union information to a funeral director."

The couple noted that any time they face a medical situation that requires an emergency visit to the hospital, they must first grab their union papers because the hospital still recognizes them as single.

"Any time we go to the hospital we fear what will happen if one of us needs to make a medical decision," Walpin said. "We shouldn't have to worry about people understanding our relationship. Who has to think about that before going to the hospital? But we know people understand the word married."

Prior to officially tying the knot, Shapiro spoke of the end being in sight to their long fight for equality.

"It feels so right, so legal, with the same dignity and respect all other engaged people have," she said. "We've been together for 24 years and we're finally engaged. It's exhilarating. I can't tell you how meaningful this engagement is to me because we know, this time, it will lead to marriage."

Now as a legally recognized married couple, the pair continue to inspire.

"U.S. Sen. Cory Booker typically speaks of how community activists inspired him from his earliest days in politics, and in that spirit we recognize the power of Walpin and Shapiro, who as private citizens took their fight for equality to the streets and into the halls of government to needle, debate, argue, cajole, testify, address and persuade, and turn people like state Sen. Ray Lesniak (D-20) into advocates and activists for their cause," Politicker said in their report.

Click here to take a look at the full Power List of 2013 from Politicker.