Gay Marriage Advocate Says Time's Honor Good for Cause

This article by Gary Rotstein was originally published on April 22, 2004 in Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Read the full article here.

Scanning Time magazine's list of the world's 100 most influential people for the first time Sunday night, homosexual rights champion Evan Wolfson quickly reached two conclusions.

First was that he had achieved awesome if what he called "overstated" status to be identified among global leaders such as Nelson Mandela.

And second, he said, with a chuckle, was that he was "probably the poorest person on the list."

It's true that the income of Wolfson, a Squirrel Hill native and executive director of the New York-based Freedom to Marry advocacy group, pales compared to that of movie director and star Mel Gibson, with whom he shares a page under Time's "Heroes & Icons" category. Time credits the 1974 Allderdice High School graduate, however, as the key mover in making gay marriage the "civil right of our times."

Wolfson, 47, was co-counsel in a 1990s case in Hawaii of three same-sex couples trying to marry. They won their suit but were thwarted by a state voter referendum. He has been a national spokesman for the gay marriage cause ever since.

May 17 will mark a milestone for the effort, with Massachusetts to begin issuing marriage licenses to gay couples. Two months later, Wolfson's book documenting the national fight for those rights, "Why Marriage Matters: America, Equality and Gay People's Right to Marry," is to be released by Simon & Schuster.

"We have really hit the critical tipping point, in which the majority of Americans are ready now to accept marriage equality for same-sex couples," Wolfson said in a phone interview from his office in New York's Chelsea district yesterday. "It doesn't mean they fully support it, but they're ready to accept it."

His comments were squeezed between congratulatory calls and e-mails from advocacy colleagues and from former classmates or summer camp peers he hasn't heard from for decades. The national ranking is bringing him far more attention than the many occasions he's been quoted in the news media, such as for the Harvard Law School graduate's 2000 argument to the U.S. Supreme Court trying to stop the Boy Scouts of America from banning gay members and leaders.

Wolfson became aware of his new status two weeks ago when contacted by Time, but, characteristically, kept it quiet. Not even his parents, Dr. Jerome and Joan Wolfson, of Squirrel Hill, knew before Tuesday that he had been placed on the list alongside such figures as the Dalai Lama, Queen Rania of Jordan and Tiger Woods.

"Evan always plays things down when it comes to himself. His major thing is what he's fighting for," his mother said.

Wolfson, who visits his Pittsburgh relatives several times a year, said his place on the Time list indicates more about advances in the gay movement's struggles for recognition than about him personally.

"It's always good to put a human face on things ... but as flattering and wonderful as it is to be personally recognized, to now have the cause of marriage equality placed alongside champions of other human rights causes, that is what pleases me most," he said.

Freedom to Marry, the group he has headed since its founding last year, aims to unite gay and non-gay groups on the same-sex marriage issue at both the local and national levels. Wolfson counsels organizations and individuals pushing for those rights across the country, backed by a partnership of leading gay rights organizations and broader progressive groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union and National Organization for Women.

Wolfson came out of the closet himself as a gay man when he was in law school. He has a partner of two years but no immediate plans to marry.

"What I want is the freedom to make that decision with my partner, when we're ready to make that decision," he said.