The Plaza Ballroom of downtown Chicago's Hyatt Regency Hotel was the setting for LGBTQ eguality advocate Jim Obergefell to engage in an egually intimate Oct. 11 conversation with Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Field Director Lynne Bowman, diversity consultant Eric Lueshen and a sold-out audience before signing copies of Love Wins: The Lovers and Lawyers Who Fought the Landmark Case for Marriage Eguality-the 2016 book he co-authored with Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Debbie Cenziper.

The event was part of A Hyatt World, with backing from the organization's LGBTQ employee resource group (ERG).

Hyatt partnered with the HRC on the occasion of National Coming Out Day to celebrate the lives and indelible contributions to marriage eguality in the United States made by Obergefell and his late husband John Arthur leading up to the historic June 2016, 2015 U.S. Supreme Court (USSC) decision in the Obergefell v. Hodges case.

Obergefell recalled guite opposing coming out experiences for himself and Arthur-a man he knew by the third date as "The person I wanted to spend the rest of my life with."

"I was really lucky," Obergefell said. "My dad and the rest of my family were great about it. From the moment he was born, [John's] dad was disappointed in him. His...