By Evan Wolfson: California Here We Come

Freedom to Marry
August 30, 2006

I spent a chunk of August in the Golden State, working with our colleagues at the Equality California Institute on an ambitious new initiative to "move the needle" on public opinion about gay people and our freedom to marry. The CA Equality Project will be an affirmative, sustained, and integrated grassroots, media, and public education campaign that for the first time in our movement's history will be truly to scale, and conducted over a long enough period of time to engage non-gay people with the information they need and deserve: who gay people are, and why marriage matters. The Project will not only stimulate and shape conversations with Californians, but will give our movement lessons and models to be shared around the country for the work underway and ahead in other states. And we're going to do it on our terms — no more too little, too late, and no more just playing defense.

Why now, and why California?

As America grapples with fairness for our families, nothing could do more to advance our cause than educating people about ending marriage discrimination in California. California is our nation's largest state, the world's 6th largest economy, and a bellwether with enormous influence on how Americans and others live and think. Nothing could reshape the echo chamber of political pundits, elected officials, civil rights leaders, and talk show hosts more than a real and sustained public education campaign on marriage and equality for same-sex couples.

Think of it this way: the Civil War did not end with Gettysburg; there were battles and scary stretches that followed. But in retrospect, it became clear that Gettysburg had been the turning-point, the battle that won the war. In this human rights movement, California will be the Gettysburg for justice. California is our claim to the future. And by getting enough conversations to happen, we can be the ones to secure a new world of fairness and inclusion for ourselves, our loved ones, the next generation, and our country.

To stay on top of developments in California, and find out how you can be part of the Equality Project as it unfolds, please visit Equality California's website.