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Preparations begin for 9th annual Freedom to Marry Week

Thousands to Celebrate Fairness for Families in Coast-to-Coast Events As Support for Marriage Equality Continues to Climb

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
February 7, 2006

PRESS CONTACT:
Samiya Bashir
Tel: 212-851-8418 x6, Mobile: 917-617-8660
Email: samiya@freedomtomarry.org

NEW YORK, February 7, 2006 — Every year, around Lincoln's Birthday and Valentine's Day, gay and non-gay people gather in living rooms, rectories, parks and civic halls to celebrate the values of equality and love, and call for an end to discrimination in marriage. Freedom to Marry Day, Sunday, February 12th, is a day to share personal stories, and ask others to push past discomfort and embrace fairness and marriage equality. Freedom to Marry Week, February 12-18, 2006, helps Americans get to know the real and diverse faces behind this civil rights movement.

"Freedom to Marry Week will engage the diverse voices who speak out in favor of ending discrimination in marriage," said Evan Wolfson, executive director of Freedom to Marry and author of Why Marriage Matters: America, Equality and Gay People's Right to Marry. "Now is the time when gay couples, their families, friends and allies to address people's concerns and discomfort, answer questions, and give them the time and information they need to rise to fairness."

As polling continues to show increased support for marriage equality in state after state, citizens in hundreds of American cities will be hosting statehouse rallies, wedding ceremonies, book parties, family picnics and discussion groups to learn and inform about the freedom to marry. Ministers and rabbis from Texas to Vermont and from Washington State to the Sunshine State will give sermons in support of equal marriage rights, helping their congregations to understand the scriptural underpinnings of embracing their neighbors with love and compassion as well as the importance of equal civil marriage rights for all families.

Freedom to Marry Week is spearheading targeted outreach to communities of color by launching, in partnership with Lambda Legal, the National Black Justice Coalition, Asian Equality and the National Latino Coalition for Justice, "Marriage Equality Matters," a multi-tiered public education campaign showcasing people of color showing their support for an end to discrimination in marriage.

Freedom to Marry is also organizing a Spanish Language Radio Tour featuring key non-gay Latino/a Voices of Equality who will participate in coast-to-coast interviews on Spanish-language radio discussing the importance of equal marriage rights and fairness for all families.

"Every child has the right to grow up in a family that is honored by society; to reach their full potential; to love and share their lives with the person they choose," said Dolores Huerta, co-founder and First Vice President Emeritus of the United Farm Workers of America, AFL-CIO, and a Freedom to Marry Voice of Equality. "This fight for marriage equality is about our families, our lives, and never allowing anyone else the right to tell us who we are and what is best for us."

For more information about events in your area, Contact Samiya Bashir at Samiya@FreedomtoMarry.org, or Pedro Julio Serrano at PedroJulio@FreedomtoMarry.org.

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Freedom to Marry is the gay and non-gay partnership working to win marriage equality nationwide. Launched in 2003, Freedom to Marry is headed by Evan Wolfson, nationally recognized as a central "architect of the marriage equality movement." Freedom to Marry guides and focuses this social justice movement on a nationwide level, serving as a strategy and support center for national, state, and local partners, a catalyst that drives and shapes the national debate on marriage equality, and an alliance-builder fostering support from non-gay allies.