Response to Bush "Marriage Promotion" Spending Plan

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

"'Promote marriage' by respecting family choice and ending discrimination against gay couples"

NEW YORK, January 14, 2004: As officials from the Bush White House announce plans for an extensive initiative they say will "promote marriage," an attorney at the forefront of the movement for marriage equality for same-sex couples calls the plan "ironic, at best."

"It is ironic that this government wants to spend tax dollars to 'promote marriage,' while spending other tax dollars to block same-sex couples who want to marry," says Evan Wolfson, executive director of Freedom to Marry, the gay and non-gay partnership working to win marriage equality nationwide.

"We're all for healthy marriages," Wolfson says. "Healthy marriages begin with choice, personal commitment, and two people working together through life's ups and downs — not government interference."

"Our opponents spend a good chunk of their time urging people to get married and advocating special rights for those who do -- then turn around and argue that gay people alone should not be allowed to marry," Wolfson says. "Their position that marriage is good for everyone except lesbians and gay men was captured well by T.H. White, when he wrote, 'Everything not forbidden is compulsory.'"

Wolfson notes, "Gay men and lesbians have the same mix of reasons for wanting the freedom to marry as non-gay people — emotional and economic, practical and personal, social and spiritual. Like other families, same-sex couples need the protections marriage offers legally and economically to families dealing with parenting, property, Social Security, finances and the like, especially in times of crisis, health emergency, dissolution or death. And like other human beings, we seek the day-to-day structure, support and security that marriage provides."

"The answer is more choice, more support, more respect for all of America's families, not government discrimination or compulsion," said Wolfson.

Wolfson previously served as marriage project director for Lambda Legal Defense & Education Fund, and is often called the architect of the marriage equality movement because of his two decades of work to end the discriminatory denial of marriage licenses to same-sex couples. The National Law Journal previously named Wolfson one of the 100 most influential lawyers in America.

Freedom to Marry, founded early last year, recently relaunched its web site, www.FreedomtoMarry.org, in preparation for Freedom to Marry Week, beginning February 9.

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CONTACTS
For further reaction to the Bush Administration's "pro-marriage" announcement, or for more information about Freedom to Marry, contact Evan Wolfson, Executive Director, 212-851-8418.

To initiate interviews regarding Freedom to Marry or the upcoming Freedom to Marry Week, please contact B. Andrew Plant of bizvox Marketing Communications, 404-634-7102, AtlantaWriter@mindspring.com

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Freedom to Marry is the gay and non-gay partnership working to win marriage equality nationwide. Launched in 2003, Freedom to Marry is headed by Evan Wolfson, nationally recognized as a central "architect of the marriage equality movement." Freedom to Marry guides and focuses this social justice movement on a nationwide level, serving as a strategy and support center for national, state, and local partners, a catalyst that drives and shapes the national debate on marriage equality, and an alliance-builder fostering support from non-gay allies.