Menefee Gau finds relatable story in “Loving” role

By Jeff Stapleton

If you look up the name Terry Menefee Gau (M.A./ M.Div’98) on a Google search, the first option you’ll find is her IMDb (Internet Movie Database) profile. The Union alumna and Richmond resident boasts 18 roles including TV series and major motion pictures. One of those is a role in the highly acclaimed 2016 film “Loving,” which chronicles the landmark 1967 Loving v. Virginia case that invalidated state laws prohibiting interracial marriage.

“This was, bar none, the best set I’d ever been on,” said Menefee Gau. “Everybody talked in calm tones. There was no rushing or running around. Everybody knew what they were doing.”

Menefee Gau only had one line in the movie, but it’s a role and a movie she was proud to be a part of. She played the secretary to a Constitutional law professor at Georgetown University named Chester Antieau. In her scene, the lawyer who represents the Lovings meets with Antieau and another Constitutional lawyer and the three of them come up with the strategy that will ultimately bring victory.

This was a personal role for her. “Virginia is the battleground where the miscegenation law is struck down because two people fall in love with each other.”

The summer before she graduated from seminary, she was doing a show at Richmond’s Dogwood Dell amphitheater when two male friends approached wanting her to officiate their wedding, even though it wasn’t going to be legally recognized. This led to a tough decision for her.

“If I’m ever going to work in a church, I’m going to lop off a huge number that won’t accept that,” she said.

Menefee Gau eventually agreed to do it and many more same-sex couples followed. The Loving case battle happened in her parents’ generation in her home state while she helped fight for the legality of same-sex marriage.

There is a seemingly obvious theological lesson to be learned in the film. “Love wins is the ultimate bottom line,” Menefee Gau said. “In the Christian tradition, it’s the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and the idea that Jesus is the incarnation of God come to Earth to show us what love looks like.”

Menefee Gau said the movie shows that you may have sacrificed or have been treated poorly all these times in the past but, in the end, love will always win.