Freedom to Marry launches Story Center to demonstrate patchwork of marriage laws

Today, Freedom to Marry launched a new online Story Center to gather and showcase the compelling voices and stories of same-sex couples and their families across the United States. The stories highlight how the denial of marriage hurts loving, committed couples and their families - while also showcasing how families and communities in marriage states are only helped and never hurt when marriage discrimination is ended. 

The Story Center - which also features a form for you to share your story with Freedom to Marry - includes several categories of stories. These include stories of celebration featuring married same-sex couples legally respected by the federal government and their home state, stories of couples who are legally married and respected at the federal level but live in states that discriminate against their marriages, and stories of couples who are unmarried and want to marry in their home state but cannot because they do not have the freedom to marry.

The launch of the Story Center features Brian Cantor and Paul Labrecque, a binational couple who own a business together in New York and were able to marry on the first day of the freedom to marry in the state. Their story includes a video produced in conjunction with The Devotion Project. Watch their story HERE. 

Freedom to Marry Founder and President Evan Wolfson said:

The house divided created by marriage discrimination cannot stand. All couples should have the freedom to marry, and all marriages should be fully respected under the law, throughout our country. By telling our stories and reaching out to the reachable, we can continue growing the majority for marriage and create the climate for the next wave of decision-makers – lawmakers, judges, and, in time, justices – to end this untenable and unfair patchwork of denial and secure the freedom to marry nationwide.

The Story Center is one element of Freedom to Marry’s Roadmap to Victory, which calls for setting the stage for a successful return to the Supreme Court by ensuring that by the end of 2016, a majority of Americans live in a marriage state, polls show public support for the freedom to marry above 60%, and federal marriage discrimination has been eliminated through passage of the Respect for Marriage Act.