Research Catalog

Title

Under this beautiful dome : a senator, a journalist, and the politics of gay love in America / Terry Mutchler.

Author

Mutchler, Terry.

Publication

Berkeley, CA : Seal Press, 2014.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

308 pages, 8 pages of plates : illustrations; 24 cm

Summary

• ""One of the greatest love stories I have ever heard played out right here, under this beautiful dome. But it was a secret. Penny and Terry just wanted what so many people want-to express their love through marriage." -Illinois Representative Ann Williams Under This Beautiful Dome tells the true story of journalist Terry Mutchler's secret five-year relationship with Penny Severns, an Illinois State Senator who mentored Barack Obama. Forced to engage in an elaborate ruse to keep their relationship a secret, the two women constantly fear discovery in their conservative town. Denied legal access to the altar, they face even greater hardships when Penny is diagnosed with cancer and begins undergoing treatment. Set in the political arena, Under This Beautiful Dome reminds us why the march to legalize same-sex marriage is both personal and political. This vivid, beautiful story paints an intimate portrait of a loving relationship and the vast impact gay marriage legislation has on couples and families in America today. "--
• "Under This Beautiful Dome tells the true story of journalist Terry Mutchler's secret five-year relationship with Penny Severns, an Illinois State senator who mentored Barack Obama. Forced to engage in an elaborate ruse to keep their relationship a secret, the two women constantly fear discovery in their conservative town. Denied legal access to the altar, they face even greater hardships when Penny is diagnosed with cancer and begins undergoing treatment"--

Subject

• BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Personal Memoirs
• Gay journalists > United States > Biography
• Gay politicians > United States > Biography
• Homosexuality > Political aspects > United States
• Lesbians > United States > Biography
• Mutchler, Terry
• POLITICAL SCIENCE / Political Freedom & Security / Civil Rights
• SOCIAL SCIENCE / Gay Studies
• SOCIAL SCIENCE / Lesbian Studies
• Severns, Penny, 1952-1998

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

The Call -- The Reporter and the Senator -- First Time for Everything -- The Future's Knocking -- Foundation of Secrecy -- Naked Behind a Furnace and Other Daily Indignities -- The Marriage Proposal -- Finding the Lump -- Making a Deal with God -- Diagnosis: Malignant Politics -- The Last Frontier -- Bone Marrow Transplants, Law School, and Other Forms of Hell -- Behind the Eight Ball: Retelling Alaska -- plans interrupted -- Gibson Girls -- Race to the Finish -- valentine's day will -- Looking at the Art -- "You Be Strong" -- Announcing Her Death -- Silent Eulogy -- Fifteen Rows Back -- And Justice For All? -- More Aftermath -- Locked Out -- "No Homeless Here" -- "I Could Dig a Ditch" -- Back to Springfield -- The $1,000 Offer -- Dating and the Abyss -- The Seasons of Grief.

ISBN

• 9781580055086 (hardback)
• 1580055087 (hardback)

LCCN

^^2014021397

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library