In the News

  • The Freedom to Marry Oral History Project

    Leaders in the movement to win the freedom to marry nationwide teamed up with Berkeley's Oral History Center for the Freedom to Marry Oral History Project.

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  • How Gay Marriage Finally Won at the Polls

    "Freedom To Marry helped assemble a coalition of state-based gay groups, polling experts and academic researchers to centralize and share information so that each campaign didn’t have to start from scratch for each new battle. What came out of this tightly coordinated effort was the key to dismantling the anti-gay myths of the last 40 years."

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  • Beyond Marriage: The Case for Full LGBT Equality

    Published by The Desert Sun on September 3, 2015 Evan Wolfson pens a forward-looking op-ed about the work remaining for LGBT rights – specifically the lack of federal non-discrimination laws for LGBT people – in a post-marriage world.

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  • Freedom to Marry is Going Out of Business. And Everybody’s Thrilled.

    Published by The Washington Post on July 30, 2015 “Evan Wolfson, founder and president of New York-based Freedom to Marry, worked on legalizing same-sex marriage for 32 years. With the Supreme Court’s recent decision, he also has worked himself out of a job.”

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  • Evan Wolfson: Profile

    Published by Haas Jr. Perspectives on July 27, 2015 Evan Wolfson shares some of the inspiration that sustained the fight for marriage equality, shortly after the full marriage win in June 2015.

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  • Evan Wolfson: ‘I Believed We Could Win’

    Published by The New York Times on July 24, 2015 Jim Rutenberg of Reuters interviews Evan Wolfson after the historic Supreme Court ruling in favor of the freedom to marry.

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  • How Gay Marriage Became a Constitutional Right

    The untold story of the improbable campaign that finally tipped the U.S. Supreme Court.

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  • The Marriage Movement’s Secret Weapon: Radical Cooperation

    This piece co-written by Freedom to Marry's Thalia Zepatos and Lanae Erickson Hatalsky, director of social policy and politics at Third Way, explores the ins and outs of messaging research that we pursued to bring more supporters into the fold.

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  • Why Conservatives Gave Up Fighting Gay Marriage

    The Post looks at the increasing number of conservatives who support the freedom to marry, as well as those who are trying to ignore the issue as they urge the party to stop opposing it.

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  • What’s Next in the Fight for Gay Equality

    Published by New York Times on June 26, 2015 Following the momentous Supreme Court victory, Evan Wolfson looks at what's next, and how the LGBT movement can harness the marriage win to continue the essential work ahead.

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  • For Freedom to Marry’s Founder, a Date with History

    Published by USA Today on June 17, 2015 A look back at Evan Wolfon's long history leading the movement to win the freedom to marry. Richard Wolf of USA Today explains: "The Supreme Court is likely to put Evan Wolfson out of work in the next two weeks, and he couldn't be happier."

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  • How We Won Marriage: 10 Lessons Learned

    Following a victory for the freedom to marry nationwide at the U.S. Supreme Court, Marc Solomon breaks down ten key lessons for other movements about how we won, including: conveying a bold, inspirational vision; following an overarching strategy; finding the right messengers; working with bipartisan advocates; and building momentum each and every day.

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  • Op-Ed: Talking to People About Marriage Equality Does Change Minds

    "In-depth, in-person conversations on marriage are indeed effective, and Freedom to Marry and our partners have worked for the last seven years with some of the country’s top social scientists — separate and apart from the disavowed study — to test our techniques, make adjustments, scrap what isn’t working, and double down on what is."

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  • Portland Gay Marriage Activist Watches Her Arguments Echo at Supreme Court Hearing

    Thalia Zepatos, as a top official for Freedom to Marry, has been encouraging supporters of same-sex marriage to focus on ... love and commitment. The change in tactics helped bring the striking increase in public support for gay marriage.

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  • Inside the Supreme Court’s Gay Marriage Debate

    After the argument, Marc Solomon reflected on the historic nature of the day, dissecting the arguments and concluding that the lawyers opposed to the freedom to marry failed to articulate a rational, secular reason for banning same-sex couples from marriage. “Love, like freedom and family,” Solomon wrote, “must - and will - win.”

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  • Before Gay Marriage SCOTUS Case, #LoveMustWin Trends

    On the day of oral arguments, the hashtag #LoveMustWin -- created by Freedom to Marry -- was used by politicians, celebrities, brands, and supporters to urge the Supreme Court to rule in favor of marriage for same-sex couples.

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  • The Marriage Mastermind

    Published by Slate on April 26, 2015 Slate writer Mark Joseph Stern looked at "How Evan Wolfson transformed American society" through his decades of work on the freedom to marry, noting, "Wolfson’s greatest hope for the Supreme Court’s upcoming marriage equality ruling is that it will put him out of a job."

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  • How Do You Change the Deeply Held Beliefs of a Nation?

    Published by Reuters on April 17, 2015 Evan Wolfson describes how, through the years, Freedom to Marry worked to win support for marriage between same-sex couples in the court of public opinion.

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  • Here’s What the Supreme Court Could Do on Gay Marriage

    Frank Bruni explains in a New York Times column that “nothing about [the progress of the freedom to marry] feels quick if you consider that Evan Wolfson, a chief architect of the political quest for same-sex marriage, wrote a thesis on the topic at Harvard Law School in 1983.

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  • The Strides and Strategy in Same-Sex Marriage

    "A lot of people now say this is inevitable - and 'inevitable' is a word I have a lot of problems with," Marc Solomon said to Chuck Todd. "I think we need to continue to make the case strongly - and once it's done, then it will be inevitable."

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  • Lessons From the March to Same-Sex Marriage

    "Every progressive cause wants to be the next gay marriage, and a longtime activist has written them a playbook."

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  • How the Right Was Won

    Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern calls Marc Solomon’s book Winning Marriage the “definitive political history of marriage equality” as part of this comprehensive review.

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  • Massachusetts Marriage Victory Offers Key Tactical Lessons

    After a decade of working on campaigns to win the freedom to marry, Marc Solomon looks back at his experience working full-time in Massachusetts. “Today’s success ... has taken a great deal of hard work,” he wrote. “Much of that work began one decade ago in Massachusetts, when the freedom to marry first became real.”

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  • Celebrating Marriage Equality

    Marc Solomon joined Mary Bonauto, Congressman Barney Frank, and Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick in an op-ed celebrating ten years of marriage in Massachusetts, taking a look at some of the tactics that helped move marriage forward.

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  • Q. & A.: Evan Wolfson on Winning the Gay-Marriage Fight

    Published by The New Yorker on December 2, 2013 Richard Socarides of the New Yorker talks with Evan Wolfson about the growing number of victories at the state level and how long it will take for there to be full marriage rights for same-sex couples.

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  • Freedom to Marry Everywhere

    Published by USA Today on November 25, 2013 Evan Wolfson and Mary Bonauto of Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders wrote about two historic marriage cases: Hawaii’s and Massachusetts’ - 20 years after the beginning of Hawaii’s battle for marriage, and 10 years after the Massachusetts victory.

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  • Wedded to an Idea

    Published by The Washington Post on July 2, 2013 This profile of Evan Wolfson reflected on the landmark Supreme Court decision and looked ahead to what's next: "There’s no question where it’s going," Wolfson said. "The only question is how soon we can bring it home, and I believe it’s a matter of years, not decades."

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  • Big Wins for the Freedom to Marry, Now Let’s Finish the Job

    Published by Reuters on June 26, 2013 On the day that the Supreme Court struck down the core of DOMA, Evan Wolfson celebrated the ruling - and explained what work Freedom to Marry still had to do, including winning the freedom to marry in a majority of states by 2016, a goal we far surpassed in 2015.

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  • The Marriage Plot: Inside This Year’s Epic Campaign for Gay Equality

    As marriage supporters across the country celebrated the first-ever victories for the freedom to marry at the ballot in four states - Maine, Maryland, Minnesota and Washington - Molly Ball wrote the exclusive, inside story about Freedom to Marry's work in each of the states, detailing how we changed the conversation about same-sex couples, their families, and marriage.

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  • A Tale of Two Conventions

    As Freedom to Marry pushed President Obama to support marriage for sex-couples, we also led an aggressive, unprecedented campaign urging the Democratic Party to add a plank in its party platform supporting the freedom to marry. We succeeded in the fall of 2012, a major victory at a time when vocal Democratic support for the freedom to marry was not assumed.

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  • Evan, Without Whom…

    Published by The Dish by Andrew Sullivan on May 15, 2012 “The indispensable man in bringing marriage equality to America is Evan Wolfson,” says Andrew Sullivan of The Dish in a profile piece as Evan Wolfson is awarded the Barnard Medal of Distinction alongside President Barack Obama.

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  • Evan Wolfson and President Barack Obama Honored at Barnard College

    Just days after President Obama spoke out on the freedom to marry, he received the Barnard Medal of Distinction alongside Evan Wolfson and Sally Chambers. Before the ceremony, Wolfson said, “I will thank the President for doing what we elect presidents to do - showing moral leadership in standing up for freedom, fairness, and families.”

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  • Evan Wolfson Debates Tony Perkins on Obama’s Support for Marriage

    Published by CBS News on May 13, 2012 Evan Wolfson joined a panel that included former Advisor to President Bush Mark McKinnon to debate Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council about Obama’s statement of support for the freedom to marry.

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  • Obama Showed Moral Leadership with Gay Marriage Support

    Published by U.S. News and World Report on May 11, 2012 After President Obama became the first-ever sitting president to voice his support for marriage for all couples nationwide, Evan Wolfson outlined the ways in which standing up for the freedom to marry was the right choice - morally and politically.

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  • How We Thwarted NOM’s Attack Plan in New Hampshire

    Marc Solomon celebrates the victory in New Hampshire, defeating attempts to repeal the freedom to marry.

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  • The Godfather of Gay Marriage

    Published by The Daily Beast on July 20, 2011 Shortly before he testified before a key U.S. Senate committee on the Respect for Marriage Act, which sought to dismantle the so-called Defense of Marriage Act, Evan Wolfson spoke about his career and pioneering steps forward with Lois Romano. “Our job is to advocate for what we truly deserve,” he told her. “Not just for what we think is doable.”

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  • How We Will Win

    With wins for the freedom to marry in four states and the District of Columbia under our belts, Marc Solomon reflected on two key strategies for winning marriage nationwide: Organizing to tell our stories, and playing an aggressive role in elections.

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  • The Time 100: Our List of the Most Influential People Living in the World Today

    Published by Time Magazine on April 28, 2004 Throughout these early years, Freedom to Marry served as a base as Wolfson championed marriage as a potential engine for social change. His commitment and conviction won him national accolades, with Time naming him one of the 100 “most influential people living in the world today”, remarking on his visionary work.

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  • All Together Now (A Blueprint for the Movement)

    Published by The Advocate on September 1, 2001 After the Hawaii case, Wolfson continued fighting for same-sex couples in his role at Lambda Legal until 2001, when he began exploring the next steps for the marriage movement: a new national campaign focused singularly on winning the freedom to marry. In this early visionary piece, he set the blueprint for the national strategy going forward. He wrote: “Shimmering within our reach is a legal structure of respect, inclusion, equality, and enlarged possibilities, including the freedom to marry. Let us build the new approach, partnership, tools, and entities that can reach the middle and bring it all home.”

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  • Evan Wolfson on Same-Sex Marriage in 1996

    In this talk, Evan warns about early opposition tactics, the federal Defense of Marriage Act, same-sex wins in state courts, and polls that show one-third of Americans currently support same-sex marriage.

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  • Evan Wolfson on Nightline Transcript

    Published by ABC Nightline on September 26, 1995 In 1995, before the U.S. Congress pushed through the anti-marriage DOMA and long before many Americans were even thinking about marriage for same-sex couples, Evan Wolfson spoke in support of the freedom to marry on Nightline, coming off of his work on the Hawaii marriage case.

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