Phillip Spooner

Last Fall, during the unfortunately successful campaign to repeal Marriage Equality in Maine, 86 year old WWII Veteran Phillip Spooner stood before a packed hall and delivered a stirring call for equality to a Senate Committee. When asked by a woman at his polling place if he supported equal rights for gay and lesbian people. He tells how surprised he was to even be asked, and said his response was, “What do you think I fought for at Omaha Beach?” His statement was subsequently set to music by Melissa Dunphy, and was selected as the winning work for the 2010 Simon Carrington Chamber Singers Composition Competition.