Why Marriage Matters to Young People
Young people are increasingly raising their voices in the national debate over the freedom to marry. Discrimination in marriage is very much a youth issue, on many different levels. For example, there are thousands of kids right now who have parents of the same sex, and don't get the same rights, benefits, or social acceptance as their friends and classmates. For them, marriage equality isn't a theoretical question, but a very real, very important issue for their moms or dads.
Furthermore, there are many young people who know that one day they will want the freedom to marry someone of their choice. The work being done now to secure the freedom to marry will set the stage for complete adoption and recognition of LGBTQ rights in the years to come.
Youth today can help create the future they will inherit. Whether speaking out for marriage equality or fighting against attacks on families, it is crucial to work towards equality now.
Use the key resources below to learn more about why marriage matters to young people.
FROM EVAN WOLFSON:
The freedom to marry: Keep dancing
Against the power of our truth and the inevitable rise to ascendancy of younger people who favor the freedom to marry, opponents of equality have only increasingly hollow appeals to "intuitions" and "traditions" that merely perpetuate rather than justify discrimination, present but curable discomfort that manifests itself in illogic and—here's where the ball is in our court—inertia that results from the failure of those who care to speak up and take action.
APPENDIX B: DISCRIMINATION: PROTECTIONS DENIED TO SAME-SEX COUPLES AND THEIR KIDS
Here are just some of the ways in which government's denying the freedom to marry punishes couples and families by depriving them of critical tangible as well as intangible protections and responsibilities in virtually every area of life.
[TOP]
VOICES OF EQUALITY:
Meet two of Freedom to Marry's young Voices of Equality
Dakota Fine
Dakota Fine, 24, based in Washington, DC, is employed by the Human Rights Campaign, division of Public Education and Outreach. Dakota has been an outspoken and valued member of the VOE/COLAGE radio tour, speaking out across our nation on behalf of our families.
Marina Gatto
Bay Area resident Gatto has been a constant fixture in the media as a spokesperson for the LGBT community since the age of eight. As a child of two lesbian moms, she has served as an activist for Equality California/Marriage Equality California, COLAGE, Immigration Equality, Love Sees No Borders, and GLSEN.
[TOP]
WHERE YOU CAN GO TO GET INVOLVED OR LEARN MORE:
Children Of Lesbians And Gays Everywhere (COLAGE)
COLAGE is the only national organization in the world specifically supporting children, youth and adults with LGBT parents.
Young People For
In 2004, People For the American Way Foundation launched a strategic, long-term leadership initiative, Young People For, to invest in the next generation of leaders and build a long-term national network for young progressives. Young People For is committed to protecting and promoting our nation's core values by identifying, engaging and empowering young leaders and activists and equipping them to work toward positive social change in their communities and across the nation. Young People For provides a national infrastructure to support young leaders' ongoing activism on the frontlines and facilitates connections to leaders and organizations in the progressive movement.
Read Young People For Marriage Equality
SoulForce's Equality Ride
During 2006's inaugural Equality Ride, participants traveled to nineteen schools and engaged students, faculty, and administrators in conversation about the damaging effects of homophobic doctrine, the false notion that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender identities are sick and sinful. This year, the journey continues with fifty young adults going to thirty-two Christian colleges and universities. Two buses are taking the group on two distinct routes around the country in creative pursuit of social justice. In doing so, they are empowered to change countless lives.
[TOP]
THE NUMBERS: POLLING & STATISTICS:
Support for marriage equality is overwhelming — 62 percent — among voters under 35.
[TOP]
PUBLICATIONS:
Gay and Lesbian Youth Want Long-Term Couple Relationships and Raising Children
Dr. Green of the Rockway Institute commented: “We seem to be witnessing the mainstreaming of lesbian/gay youth, with many of them wanting exactly what heterosexual youth have always wanted - the whole American dream complete with kids and the minivan. This should not be surprising when one considers that most lesbian/gay youth also have been raised in very mainstream heterosexual families with similar values and parental models.” He continued, “Although some lesbian/gay adults may prefer less conventional lives, most agree that the primary issue is whether these youth will be given the equal legal rights to realize their couple and family aspirations just like their heterosexual peers.”
A Portrait of "Generation Next"
About half of Gen-Nexters say the growing number of immigrants to the U.S. strengthens the country — more than any generation. And they also lead the way in their support for marriage equality and acceptance of interracial dating.
[TOP]
NEWS:
High schooler spars with Rove over so-called “gay marriage”
During his controversial speech at New England prep school Choate Rosemary Hall yesterday, former Bush adviser Karl Rove was challenged by a student “to explain how giving gay people the right to marry would endanger other people.” Rove dodged answering her at first, saying that the issue “should be resolved by a legislature or a referendum, not a court.” But the student, Choate senior Marla Spivak, continued to press him.
Study: Youth see Christians as judgmental, anti-gay
Survey research of people ages 16-29 show a majority view Christianity
as hypocritical and anti-gay; attitudes about gay people are driving a
negative image of the faith. "The anti-homosexual perception has now
become sort of the Geiger counter of Christians' ability to love and
work with people," said said David Kinnaman, Barna Group president and
author of the book, UnChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks
About Christianity.
BLOG: Soulforce's Right to Marry campaign begins
After picking students up from train stations in New York City, they
traveled to Albany to begin training. The leadership of the initiative
assembled a host of seminars that would prepare the students for
meetings with NY politicians, community leaders, and constituents.
New polls show gay acceptance on the rise, especially with younger people
Evan Wolfson said differing attitudes about marriage equality could be because the younger respondents grew up in a time of greater visibility and open discussion of gays and lesbians. "The key to changing hearts is getting people to hear from and about real people," he said, "rather than approach it in the hypothetical or with just scary rhetoric or abstractions. That's why getting gay and non-gay people to talk about why marriage matters for real couples and kids, reaching out to the people around us and asking them for their support is so crucial."
Marriage support growing among young adults: survey
According to the study released last week by the Pew Research Center, an estimated 47 percent of adults ages 18-25 support legalizing gay and lesbian marriages. By comparison, an estimated 30 percent of adults age 26 and older back marriage equality.
Children of lesbian and gay parents speak out about the freedom to marry
With National Coming Out Day upon us, COLAGE (Children of Lesbians and Gays Everywhere) and Freedom to Marry are working together to ensure that the voices of these young people who are being directly harmed by discrimination in marriage are heard.
[TOP]
MULTIMEDIA:
Gay marriage: What's the big screaming deal?
A college student asks "Why do people care about other people's marriage?"
[TOP]
Dakota Fine, 24, based in Washington, DC, is employed by the Human Rights Campaign, division of Public Education and Outreach. Dakota has been an outspoken and valued member of the VOE/COLAGE radio tour, speaking out across our nation on behalf of our families.
Bay Area resident Marina Gatto has been a constant fixture in the media as a spokesperson for the LGBT community since the age of eight. As a child of two lesbian moms, she has served as an activist for Equality California/Marriage Equality California, COLAGE, Immigration Equality, Love Sees No Borders, and GLSEN.
COLAGE is the only national organization in the world specifically supporting children, youth and adults with LGBT parents.
During 2006's inaugural Equality Ride, participants traveled to nineteen schools and engaged students, faculty, and administrators in conversation about the damaging effects of homophobic doctrine, the false notion that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender identities are sick and sinful. This year, the journey continues with fifty young adults going to thirty-two Christian colleges and universities. Two buses are taking the group on two distinct routes around the country in creative pursuit of social justice. In doing so, they are empowered to change countless lives.
About half of Gen-Nexters say the growing number of immigrants to the U.S. strengthens the country — more than any generation. And they also lead the way in their support for marriage equality and acceptance of interracial dating.
