This year marks the 30th anniversary of the loving commitment Karen Thompson and Sharon Kowalski made to each other in 1979. Sharon and Karen lived as a couple for four years when a car accident dramatically altered their lives. Sharon Kowalski was struck by a drunk driver and sustained a traumatic brain injury. Soon thereafter, Kowalski's parents learned of their daughter's relationship with Karen Thompson and refused to acknowledge Karen as an important figure in Sharon's life. Sharon Kowalski's father assumed guardianship of his 27 year-old daughter, despite her requests to be placed in Karen's care. Sharon's father moved her to a nursing home 200 miles away from Karen, who was denied visitation rights. With the support of several LGBT rights, women's rights, and disability rights groups, Karen began a 9 ½ year legal battle to bring her partner home. This was the first known case of its kind to bring together national leaders of each of these groups. In 1993, Sharon returned home with Karen.
Since then, their family has grown and Karen Thompson, Sharon Kowalski and Patty Bresser have become trailblazers in the struggle towards LGBT equality. St. Cloud State University's LGBT Resource Center, in collaboration with the Women's Center and Multicultural Student Services, is hosting a formal reception to celebrate and commemorate the extraordinary courage and love Karen and Sharon demonstrated while being thrust into the national spotlight. Karen Thompson is a professor in the Human Relations and Multicultural Education Department and Patty Bresser is an associate professor in the Department of Nursing Science at St. Cloud State University. Sharon Kowalski attends an adult day program five days a week in St. Cloud.
For more information, contact Heidi T. Aldes, Director, LGBT Resource Center, St. Cloud State University at 320.308.5166 or htaldes@stcloudstate.edu
Saturday, December 5, 2009, 7 p.m. in Atwood Memorial Center's Cascade Room ( Program begins at 7:30 p.m., St. Cloud State University, St. Cloud, Minnesota
FROM A NEWS RELEASE
ST. CLOUD, MN, NOVEMBER 25, 2009:
