Film Description

Three years in the making, Jim de Seve's powerful documentary on same-sex marriage provides a much needed historical and legal perspective to the political war being waged in the nation today. By using archival footage, news clips, and heartfelt interviews, Tying the Knot examines the institution of marriage today and how it has changed through history: from a historical trip to the middle ages to gay hippies storming the Manhattan marriage bureau in 1971. This eye-opening exploration of the embattled institution looks at rights, privilege and love as gay activists and right-wing politicos lock horns in the fight for marriage.

By taking real life stories from the news headlines, de Seve puts these struggles on the forefront of this very intense on-going battle for basic civil rights. A tender home video of Florida police officers Mickie Mashburn and Lois Morrero's commitment ceremony is juxtaposed with the agonizing indignity of marriage discrimination when Lois is killed on the job and Mickie is denied her life partner's pension. When his life partner dies, an Oklahoma rancher is booted off the property they built together by estranged cousins of his deceased partner. A New York City police officer and a Pentagon worker endure tremendous suffering after the loss of their life partners in the wake of 9/11.

These true accounts powerfully illustrate that, without marriage, same-sex partners are denied both the societal recognition and the legal rights that married couples enjoy. With 1,049 federal rights and protections afforded legally to married couples, the consequences of marriage discrimination are undeniable. Our film weaves their personal stories with a larger chronicle of history-in-the-making.