L.A. Times: Gains outweigh setbacks in a landmark year for gay rights
December 20, 2010
The passage of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell repeal legislation caps a tremendous year in the advancement of LGBT issues. Freedom to Marry Executive Director Evan Wolfson was quoted in a Los Angeles Times article looking at the gains made in 2010:
"The momentum in America," said Evan Wolfson, executive director of the national advocacy organization Freedom to Marry, is "toward the freedom to marry and ending unfair treatment of gay people." Gay marriage is legal in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa, New Hampshire, Vermont and the District of Columbia.Wolfson noted that 40% of Americans now live in states where some form of marriage or civil union for gay couples is recognized.
The repeal of DADT is one of the most important federal achievements on LGBT issues. Military service, like marriage, has long been considered a defining element of citizenship and full participation in society. And military discrimination, like exclusion from marriage, is one of the cruelest inequalities inflicted on gay Americans by their own government.
Freedom to Marry’s 10 in ’10: Top Ten Moments on Marriage in 2010 provides a list of the highpoints for the marriage movement in 2010.