Lois Galgay told her mother she wanted to move to Maine when she was 7 years old after spending several happy summers at Goose Rocks Beach in Maine. Her mom advised her to hold off until she was an adult.
She waited, but in the end, she did arrive in Maine in her 20s and rose to become the state’s most ardent supporter of women and children, her decades-long support just coming to an end when she passed away from cancer on October 30, 2023, at the age of 78. By inducting her into the Deborah Morton Society and the Maine Women’s Hall of Fame and bestowing honors on her for her groundbreaking work on domestic violence, Maine honored her accomplishments. She was respected by the legal system, the state bar association, and the association for police leaders.
She was a head on the national level, though. After she passed away, Ms. Magazine ran the title, “Rest in Power: Lois Galgay Reckitt, Trailblazing Feminist Activist.”
Lois Reckitt has not only been a motivating head for women and girls in Maine but also across the country, according to Eleanor Smeal, an advocate since the 1970s who was once referred to as one of the most important women in America. Lois was a supporter of the Equal Rights Amendment in both the Maine and the United States Constitutions. She served as a regional leader in the battle to end violence against women and girls as well as the National Organization for Women. She served as the executive vice president of the National Organization for Women, and I had the good fortune to collaborate closely with her. Up until the time of her passing, she fought for women’s rights and was extremely proud of Maine for passing landmark policy to put an end to sexual trafficking.
Reckitt served as executive vice president from 1984 to 1988 while serving on the national board of NOW for 15 years. She was chosen for the job and pursued it with a vengeance, putting in 60 to 70 hours per week. She co-founded and replicated the Human Rights Campaign Fund in Maine, where she also served for eight years on the federal board. She spent many years as a member of the National Coalition to Stop Home Crime.
She is mentioned in “Feminists Who Changed America” (1963–1975).
Reckitt was an only child and the daughter of parents who were both influential individuals when she was raised in Massachusetts. She followed her father, who was serving in South Portland’s Coast Guard, to Maine. She claimed that at the moment, she had no idea that she was a lesbian. That realization hit her during two relationships, and eventually, she came out and fought for gay rights.
Her family, Marjorie Lewis Wright of South Portland, and her father, George A. Galgay of Winthrop, Massachusetts, passed away before her.
She is survived by Lyn Kjenstad Carter, her devoted 20-year partner/wife, granddaughter, Barbara M. Carter-Eide, son-in-law, Pala Carter-Eide. Crystal L. Hartford, five grandchildren, and numerous relatives from the Galgay and Wright households.
In addition to being a regional leader in domestic violence, she also served as Maine’s real leader. She oversaw Family Crisis Shelter for more than three decades, taking time off to work in Washington, D.C., and when she returned to Maine, she was worn out and declared she had only slept for six months. But she carried on with her work, leading a company with an annual budget of $1.4 million, 30 employees, three referral headquarters, and an abandoned women’s shelter. She advocated for stronger legislation and more aggressive enforcement of domestic abuse because she was at the forefront of efforts to stop it and support its victims. She successfully lobbied for anti-stalking policy, a domestic assault killing review section, and gun control measures for perpetrators while raising public awareness of the severity of domestic abuse.
She worked to improve police, lawyers, and judges’ understanding of domestic violence and the damage it caused in addition to passing laws. According to longtime pal and retired judge Michael Cantara, her strategy was based on her conviction that people want to act in a just and moral manner and that most individuals will serve victims better if they are aware of the dynamics of domestic violence.
Reckitt was in charge of numerous organizations, but occasionally she had to start them all. The Maine Right to Choose, the Maine Coalition for Human Rights, and the Matlovich Society for Gay Rights and AIDS Awareness were a few of the businesses she founded, either entirely or partially. 45 years before, she and eight other people, including the current governor, Janet Mills, founded The Maine Women’s Lobby. Reckitt “set for a deep example of what it’s like to work on an issue, to follow your heart, and in every possible way,” according to Desta Hohman Sprague, the current executive director of the Women’s Lobby. “I just adore the fact that she always stopped working as an activist and finally a policymaker.”
State officials praised her after she passed away, referring to her as a trailblazer, female icon, hero, present pioneer, and “a truly remarkable person.”
When Mills went to Lois’ house to swear her in for her final legislative term, she said, “Lois never stopped trying to make our state better for everyone.” “She was a lovely friend, and I will miss her terribly.”
Reckitt was aware that her work might require energy, which may have put her to the test, but she never gave up. Three times she tried to introduce an equal rights act to the Maine government, but each time she was rejected. She contributed to the formation of the partnership that introduced Maine’s first gay rights act. She and other activists believed that passing a law might take ten years. 25 were required. Just two partners were available to her. Gerald Talbot, the second Black person elected to the Maine Legislature, was one of them. Talbot went to a store to purchase the book he needed to learn more about gay rights. Reckitt recalled, “They wouldn’t take the money out of his hand because they believed he was gay.” The event demonstrated the challenge they faced. Even though no one spoke against the bill, Reckitt gave the opening testimony, it failed.
At this point, she barely came up. She made the decision to remain hidden until the first battle was over and then emerged at a flat friend’s farmhouse in Newcastle. From that point on, gay rights were in her handbook. Working with a queer man who was dying of AIDS, she started helping gays and lesbians feel more connected by giving them places to meet that were safe. It started out with six or seven persons and quickly increased to 150, requiring several hours of driving. At the boy’s funeral, she would serve as a pallbearer.
She wasn’t a rabble-rouser, despite the intensity of her work to fix broken things; instead, she tended to work in the background. She was, however, detained twice, once while demonstrating against apartheid at the South African embassy in Washington. When the federal gay rights movements traveled to Washington to criticize Reagan’s ineffective response to the AIDS crisis, she once more entered the fray on a national level. She was obviously shocked that Reagan had never used the word “AIDS” in an oral history interview. She remarked, “Reagan was like a ditz.”
She protested outside the White House by sitting still and remaining motionless, as was customary at the time. Seventy-seven people were detained. In her oral history interview, she claimed that she was the first, “certainly because I was particularly ridiculous or something,” but rather because of the protest’s setup. She asserted that she had “the peculiar distinction of being the first woman in the United States to be detained by police using those Playtex plastic gloves,” which they used to “reach down my pants to see if I was carrying who knows what.”
She had a wide range of interests, including European ancestry. She traveled widely, taught swimming and science, played basketball in college, knit, embroidered, and did needlework. She adored the Boston Red Sox and Celtics the most.
She earned college degrees in biology from Brandeis University and marine science and natural zoology from Boston University, which seems to be at odds with her life’s job. She claimed, however, that her academic training had taught her how to approach life.
Lee Longtime friend Umphrey remarked, “She loved the ocean and she loved that she lived close to the beach.” “She liked to say that South Portland’s congressional district was on the ocean side.”
She previously referred to the movement for women’s rights, the gay rights movement, and the fight against violence against women as the three loves of her existence. She remarked, “I’ve led an intriguing life.”
According to Cantara, a retired judge, Lois “came of age when the legal rights, environmental protection, anti-Vietnam movement, against apartheid, and the equality for women movement were front and center.” She “chose to become a lifelong engaged member who spoke out for the underprivileged, marginalized, forgotten, and dismissed.” She was really serious about her legislative responsibilities. Up until two weeks before she passed away, she was engaged in legislative work.
Yet from her hospital bed, she took part in a regional conference that centered on her groundbreaking Maine efforts to put an end to sexual exploitation. She received the Dignity Defense Award from the National Center on Sexual Exploitation as a token of its recognition. Umphrey stated that Lois “was in the horse supporting equality” all the way to the end. “She gave it everything she had until the very end.”
However, she questioned what her life may amount to in her 1999 oral history discussion. She said, “One of the things I’ve been worried about is not having my life vanish.” “I believe that at some point, someone may recall my arrival on the planet. I’ve accomplished a lot of good. Knowing that, I believe I’m just halfway there.”
On November 12, the Maine Irish Heritage Center in Portland hosted a tribute to her career. Reckitt had served as both the agency’s manager and board member.
Instead of flowers, donations are advised to:
Through These Doors
Otherwise: 737-234-6464
The Center for Maine Irish Heritage,
34 Gray Street,
Portland, Maine 04112-7588
207-780-0118
