"It is easy to get caught up -- and I often do -- in the legal cases and political debates surrounding same-sex marriage. Tracking those cases and debates is important. But, as people like Freedom to Marry's Evan Wolfson, Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders's Mary Bonauto and others constantly remind anyone who will listen, the change we are seeing is, at the end of this personal and societal evolution, about the couples themselves and their families."
Last week, at the first-ever congressional hearing on the repeal of the so-called “Defense of Marriage Act” (DOMA), some of the more interesting statements given in favor of the freedom to marry for same-sex couples came from Senators who, 15 years ago, voted in favor of DOMA.
In a new polling memo intended to shape politicians' decisions on the question of same-sex marriage, the top pollsters for Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama jointly argue that support for same-sex marriage is increasingly safe political ground and will in future years begin to "dominate" the political landscape.
Hundreds of same-sex couples married in New York on Sunday (July 24), the first day they could legally do so. And just as the Stonewall Riots in New York City in 1969 gave a lift to the nascent movement for equal rights for gays across the country, marriage equality in the Empire State appears to be giving a boost to marriage equality efforts outside its borders.
Jacqueline Cabrera and Gabrielle Harmon of Elmhurst, Queens are getting ready to spend the rest of their lives together. They will get married next Saturday in Central Park near Columbus Circle.
U.S. House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) indicated on Thursday he wouldn’t bring to a vote before the House legislation pending before Congress that would repeal the Defense of Marriage Act.
Two prominent voices in the LGBT rights movement — Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese and Freedom to Marry President Evan Wolfson — will be among the witnesses who’ll testify at an upcoming Senate hearing on repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act.
Instead of being "worried about alienating voters," Obama's campaign "should be worried about energizing voters," said Evan Wolfson, president of Freedom to Marry, a national organization in favor of same-sex marriage.
President Barack Obama’s Justice Department hit one out of the ballpark with the powerful, historic brief filed July 1 in one of the many court challenges to the so-called “Defense of Marriage Act.”
New York is such a powerful stage,” says Evan Wolfson, the founder and president of the national gay-rights advocacy group Freedom to Marry. “It’s a powerful opportunity that is going to ripple through the country and the world.”
Evan Wolfson, a Squirrel Hill native, was named by Time magazine in 2004 as one of the 100 most influential people in the world for his work as founder and president of the advocacy group Freedom to Marry. But in his home state, same-sex marriage is still a long way off.
Couples may marry for love, but the partnership is also an economic one. And now that New York has become the sixth state to perform same-sex marriage, couples who tie the knot here will gain a variety of financial benefits and legal rights.
President Obama heads to New York City Thursday evening to host a gala with the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community, as advocates are frustrated he hasn't endorsed gay marriage and New York state takes up a key vote on the issue
With a decision on New York’s gay marriage bill coming any minute now, one of the principle remaining obstacles to its passage — which would be a huge victory for the gay rights movement — is a man named Mike Long.
"Now that we've made it here, we'll make it everywhere," said prominent activist Evan Wolfson, who took up the cause of marriage equality as a law student three decades ago.
With New York now gearing up for same-sex weddings, the battle lines are forming for the next skirmishes over gay marriage — and the most dramatic could come in Minnesota.
Evan Wolfson, president of Freedom to Marry, said Obama is ‘”lagging behind the American people” by not yet endorsing same-sex marriage when a majority of Americans now support the concept.
"Marriage brings that statement of clarity, dignity and connectedness to another person that is immediately understood and powerful," Wolfson said.
New York, where the gay rights movement was born but has run up against conservative forces, could again change the political landscape for gays by becoming the largest state to allow same-sex marriage.