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Freedom to Marry condemns President Bush's backing of an anti-gay constitutional amendment

(February 24, 2004) — There is nothing moderate about amending the Constitution. There is nothing conservative about amending the Constitution. There is nothing compassionate about amending the Constitution to tie the hands of all states and all future generations with restrictions instead of rights.

President Bush tries to have it both ways saying, "We should also conduct this difficult debate in a matter worthy of our country, without bitterness or anger." Sugarcoating his discriminatory stand by calling for dialogue turns accepted notions of debate on their head. The pretense of encouraging a national conversation about civil rights—while at the very same time taking action to shut down the discussion with a constitutional amendment—is simply unprecedented.

The whole world has begun to witness the thousands of couples in San Francisco waiting for hours in line in the rain for the opportunity to marry. As their words and faces come into living rooms all across the country, Americans have begun to see and hear these loving couples, as real people, as never before.

Politicians who play with fire near our country's most precious document are the greatest threat to American families and values. Today President Bush has taken an extreme and audacious anti-gay stand against the existing civil rights of law-abiding citizens. We believe the American people will reject this election year attempt to divide, not unite, our nation.

Freedom to Marry (www.freedomtomarry.org) is the gay and non-gay partnership working to win marriage equality nationwide. Headed by Evan Wolfson, one of America's leading lesbian/gay rights advocates and lawyers, Freedom to Marry brings new resources and a renewed context of urgency and opportunity to this social justice movement. Wolfson previously served as marriage project director for Lambda Legal Defense & Education Fund. The National Law Journal named Wolfson one of the 100 most influential lawyers in America.

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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.