About the Author
Arlene Goldberg is a leader and pioneer in the LGBTQ+ community, and the recipient of Equality Florida’s 2014 Voice for Equality Award. She was one of the plaintiffs in the groundbreaking ACLU class-action lawsuit related to same-sex marriage laws in Florida. History was made when she and her wife, Carol, became the first same-sex couple to have their New York marriage officially and legally recognized by the State of Florida. Arlene cofounded Visuality in 2011 in Southwest Florida, and Southwest Florida Pride, Inc. created the Goldberg Award in her honor, to “recognize outstanding individuals that have contributed to the cultural, social and economic fabric of the LGBTQ+ Community in Southwest Florida.”
Arlene introducing Carol
Arlene was born and raised in the Bronx.
“I’m a city girl,” she says. She met Carol when they were 13 years old. “She was my best friend,” Arlene recalled. “And when we were 20, we became involved in a relationship.”
A relationship most people did not know about.
“I would say we lived in the closet most of our or lives,” she says. “Most of the 47 years we were together.”
They moved to Southwest Florida in April 1989. The warm climate was a way to cope with the symptoms Carol was experiencing from Raynaud’s syndrome, a rare disorder of the blood vessels that is exacerbated by cold temperatures. Arlene recalls that they both sent out resumes and decided they would relocate as soon as one of them got a job offer. She was hired first, at Temple Beth El in Fort Myers. And when they made the move, their status as a couple stayed quiet.
