Taking Sides: Debating Discrimination

On the eve of Gubernatorial Candidate Elliot Spitzer's outspoken embrace of equal marriage rights for same-sex couples, a leading architect of modern marriage movement squares off against one of President Bush's favorite right wing writer.

Press Release
For Immediate Release: Thursday, October 12, 2006

MEDIA CONTACT:
Samiya Bashir, Director of Communications
samiya@freedomtomarry.org
Mobile: 917-617-8660

"If we as a society believe that marriage is good, bringing support and security to couples and their children, why wouldn't that be true for gay people, too? Government has no business putting obstacles in the path of people trying to care for one another."
— Evan Wolfson, Executive Director, Freedom to Marry

What:

"The Gay Marriage Debate: A Conversation on the Implications of Same-Sex Marriage"

Who:

Evan Wolfson, Founder and Executive Director, Freedom to Marry, author of Why Marriage Matters: America, Equality & Gay People's Right to Marry

Maggie Gallagher, President, Institute for Marriage and Public Policy, outspoken opponent of ending discrimination in marriage and author of The Abolition of Marriage: How We Destroy Lasting Love

Where:

The Jewish Theological Seminary, 3080 Broadway (at 122nd Street), NYC. Admission is free, but reservations are required. Call 212-280-6093 or email: publicevents@jtsa.edu. Please arrive at least fifteen minutes prior to each program to allow sufficient time for registration, and please have photo ID available.

When:

Monday, October 16, 2006, 7:30 p.m.

Why:

Just days after UCLA'S Williams Institute releases two key reports which offer key findings in the fight to end the exclusion of committed lesbian and gay couples from marriage The Jewish Theological Seminary presents two key leaders on opposing sides of the debate about the rights of the American family.

Both released this month, The Williams Institute's "The Effect of Marriage Equality and Domestic Partnership on Business and the Economy" finds that employer policies that treat employees with same-sex partners or spouses equally improve the health and well-being of their families, resulting in gains for both the employee and his or her family as well as to the employer and state and federal budgets.

A second report, "Same-sex Couples and the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual Population: New Estimates from the American Community Survey," shows that the national debate over equal rights for lesbian and gay couples and their families is an urgent one for far more families than previously thought, reporting on average a 30% increase in the number of self-identified same-sex couples living across America.

The Gay Marriage Debate: A Conversation on the Implications of Same-Sex Marriage promises to be the most heated and thorough debates yet about one of America's most pressing social justice issues.

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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.