Stephanie Coontz. Photo by Tao Ruspoli

An historic decision by the United States Supreme Court on Friday, June 26 established that the Constitution guarantees a right to same-sex marriage. Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote for the majority in the ruling, directly citing Evergreen faculty emerita Stephanie Coontz twice in the groundbreaking opinion.

Seattle Times editorial columnist Danny Westneat uncovered the story, investigating the unlikely front and center role Coontz’s work played in swaying the Reagan-appointed swing vote.

Westneat ends with a nod to Evergreen:

Evergreen’s alternative style was crucial to developing all this, Coontz says. It’s not a traditional research university. For example, she said, “They insist you talk about your work extensively with your students. So the students have contributed to a lot of my thinking over the years.”

Coontz, 70, is semiretired from Evergreen now. But she plans to teach her seminar, “American Families: Historical and Sociological Perspectives,” there next spring. That’s going to be one sought-after class, I’d guess.

I still sometimes hear people deride Evergreen as “too weird” to be a public college that gets taxpayer money.”Well, Geoducks, you showed them. Weird made history.