New Jersey Gay Rights Figure Laurel Hester Dies
Posted on | February 18, 2006
Laurel Hester, the lesbian cop in New Jersey who was at the center of a horrendous fight against five heartless Republicans, died yesterday at the age of forty-nine. Hester was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer last year and began a fight that lasted months to secure transfer of her benefits to her wife, Stacie Andree. Under New Jersey law, such a transfer is legal but only at the discretion of municipal governments. Hester feared that Andree might not be able to keep the house the two had lived in and such without the transferring of the benefits. Before her cancer forced her to quit working, Hester had been a lieutenant with the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office for over twenty years.
Five Republican members of the county freeholders held out until late January when county Republican leadership, fearing a backlash from voters, brought pressure to bear and threatened to go to the legislature. In a show of gratitude Laurel showed up at the meeting to personally thank the five freeholders who had "changed their minds" in spite of medical advice telling her not to go.
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