A Note from Evan Wolfson
The Freedom to Marry office is filled with glowing smiles, pure elation, and sighs of relief as our biggest week of the year, Freedom to Marry Week, has been a stunning success thus far. Throughout the country, people are seizing this opportunity to engage the public in the conversation about the need for marriage equality.
On Monday, Freedom to Marry Day, our staff hosted an extraordinary event celebrating both the 10th anniversary of Freedom to Marry Day and my 50th birthday. I was very honored by the hundreds of supporters, friends, and family who attended, and was deeply inspired by those who offered their words of reminiscence and encouragement. Thank you to Governor Eliot Spitzer for his letter, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn for sending a City Council Proclamation, a letter from Senator Russ Feingold, and both Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum and Lambda Legal Executive Director Kevin Cathcart offering moving speeches about the history of the fight for marriage equality.
As I reach you on Valentine’s day, a day we celebrate love, I feel overwhelmingly surrounded by love and support especially following such an exceptional event. I look forward to the day when we can all have the choice to show our love and commitment through marriage.
-Evan Wolfson
CLICK HERE to read Evan's full Freedom to Marry Day remarks where he discusses the important achievements from Freedom to Marry Day in 1997 through to today.
Follow developments in the movement for marriage equality on our website, and in future issues of Freedom to Marry's bi-monthly E-Update.
Reports from the Front
Freedom to Marry Week Press Coverage and Events Reach New Heights
From small towns to big cities, people across the country are waking up to read about Freedom to Marry Week in their newspaper or on their favorite
websites. Events are inundating the public from rallies and marriage counter actions to book releases and lobby days, increasing awareness of the
inequality in marriage and everyone's need to fight for change. Congratulations to groups around the country for their successful events. To
view this week’s events, please visit Freedom to Marry Week Events, and to see how
widespread the press coverage is, start with these articles:
Mombian: Freedom to Marry Week Blog Carnival
DCist: State of the Same-Sex Union
365Gay: Calif. Clerk's Gay Marriage Protest Spreads
San Francisco
Chronicle: County clerks vow same-sex support
Sacramento Bee: Clerk protests gay marriage ban
The Way Life Should Be: Marriage in Maine
PageOneQ: Marriage battle heats up in Connecticut; Bill extending marriage to be
introduced
The Patriot-News: Church promotes rights for
gay couples
The Minnesota Daily: The right to marry: who is really at risk?
Press & Sun-Bulletin: Today begins Freedom
to Marry Week
The Hartford Courant:
A Grandmother Speaks Out In Favor Of Gay Marriage
Blue Oregon: Freedom to Marry Week
Sun Post: The rights stuff
Modesto Bee: Marriage about rights, same sex couples say
The Reporter: I did
Relish Now: Marry Week intended to highlight inequality faced by gays
OutSmart: The
marrying men
Evan Wolfson on MSNBC
Evan Wolfson debates the Family Research Council on MSNBC News Live regarding a proposed initiative to bar non-procreative couples from marrying, just like same-sex couples in states that deny them the freedom to marry.
Retired NBA Player Comes Out and Stresses the Importance of Marriage Equality
On Sunday, retired NBA player John Amaechi appeared on ESPN’s show “Outside the Lines,” and announced he is gay. Amaechi is the
first NBA player, retired or active, to come out. Amaechi worked with a broad coalition of our partner organizations (GLAAD, HRC, NBJC) to guide him
through the coming out process and he is eager to be involved in the ongoing work toward achieving gay rights, including marriage equality. In his newly
released autobiography, "Man in the Middle," Amaechi directly addresses the struggle for marriage equality: "Political conservatives tend
to define gay people as 'immoral,' 'perverted,' and 'promiscuous,' yet they deny them the one institution that to them represents the opposite. It's a
handy catch-22 with which to bind a whole group of people to second-class citizenship."
Panel on Marriage Equality Educates Public
On Sunday, February 11th, Freedom to Marry Week kicked off in New York City with a panel on marriage equality hosted by Maranatha Riversiders for LGBT Concerns at the historic Riverside Church. The event was a huge success with standing-room-only attendance. Freedom to Marry's very own Reverend Kiyana Horton sat on the panel along with partners from NY's Pride Agenda, Lambda Legal, and others.
The Latest News
For the latest news, opinions, and polls, including these articles, check out our website.
BLOG: Don’t forget marriage in 2008
DavidMixner.com
February 6, 2007
Like other great civil rights campaigns, this fight will require fortitude. We won’t win this one without some nasty fights, anxiety that we may
lose friends and even wholesale set backs. In the 1960s, as the battle against racial inequality raged, many state and local governments passed
oppressive laws to stop justice from winning out. Even California passed an initiative rolling back fair housing legislation. This push back should be
expected in a time of great social and legal change.
