In addition to their contributions to the entertainment industry, director Rob Reiner and producer Michele Reiner left behind a remarkable legacy in advancing LGBTQ rights.
“So many in our movement remember how Rob and Michele organized their peers, brought strategists and lawyers together, and helped power landmark Supreme Court decisions that made marriage equality the law of the land,” the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ rights advocacy organization, said in a statement after the Reiners were found dead in their home on Sunday.
The Reiners previously cofounded an organization called the American Foundation For Equal Rights, which successfully funded a court challenge against California’s Proposition 8, a 2008 ballot initiative that barred marriage equality in the state.
The organization brought on Ted Olson and David Boies, the two attorneys who were on opposite sides of the Bush v. Gore case, and fought the initiative in federal court. A district court and appeals court wound up overturning Proposition 8 and the Supreme Court dismissed an appeal after questioning whether the defendants had the standing to participate in the case.
That court challenge included a “first-of-its-kind trial” on the constitutional right to same-sex marriage, which helped lay the groundwork for the landmark Obergefell case in 2015, Deadline reported.
