Freedom to Marry is the campaign to win marriage nationwide in the United States of America. Freedom to Marry was founded in New York City in 2003 by Evan Wolfson, whom many consider to be the father of the modern marriage movement.[1]
According to its “Roadmap to Victory”, Freedom to Marry is working to win marriage in more states, grow the national majority for marriage, and end federal marriage discrimination by repealing the Defense of Marriage Act.
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Federal Campaign to Repeal DOMA
Freedom to Marry is currently pursuing a federal campaign to increase the number of supporters in both the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives for the Respect for Marriage Act, the bill that would overturn the so-called Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which denies legally married couples thousands of protections. Freedom to Marry has partnered with other organizations including Equality Maryland, Marriage Equality Rhode Island, Courage Campaign, and Ocean Station Action in its efforts to reach Senators and Representatives. The organization celebrated a significant victory after Senator Mikulski of Maryland signed on as a co-sponsor of the Act, following a campaign that garnered a petition with 3,000 signatures from Maryland residents. There are now a record number of supporters in both the House, where the bill has 134 sponsors, and in the Senate with 31 sponsors. (The bill was introduced in March with 108 cosponsors in the House and 18 cosponsors in the Senate.) Currently, the groups are working on other campaigns that urge Senator Bob Casey (D-PA), Senator Jack Reed (D-RI), Senator Joe Lieberman (I-CT), and Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) to announce their support as well.
New York Campaign
On June 24, 2011, New York became the sixth and largest state to extend the freedom to marry to gay and lesbian couples—a historic victory that more than doubled the number of Americans living in a state with marriage for gay and lesbian couples. The victory in New York was the first time that a Republican-led chamber passed marriage legislation.
Freedom to Marry helped to shape every part of the comprehensive campaign in New York to win the marriage. Freedom to Marry was one of the founders of New Yorkers United for Marriage, a coalition of leading New York LGBT advocacy organizations that worked to win the freedom to marry in New York. Taking on a key leadership role in guiding the coalition’s work, Freedom to Marry invested over $1,000,000 in the campaign, including more than $500,000 for television, newspaper ads, and direct mail, and over $100,000 in polling, all aimed at making sure legislators heard from the couples affected, their loved ones, and the supermajority of New Yorkers who support the freedom to marry.
"Say, 'I Do'"
Freedom to Marry’s “Say, ‘I Do’” campaign was launched on March 14, 2011 as an Open Letter calling on President Obama to do the right thing and join the majority of Americans who support the freedom to marry. Over 115,000 people have signed this letter, including prominent Americans such as civil rights leaders, professional actors and actresses, musicians, and business leaders. Signers include Caroline Kennedy; actors Natalie Portman, Anne Hathaway, Jane Lynch, Eric McCormack, Martin Sheen, Lily Tomlin, and Verne Troyer; television host Ellen Degeneres and actress Portia Degeneres; Bravo’s Andy Cohen; musicians Melissa Etheridge, Mya, LeAnn Rimes, and Rufus Wainwright; high-tech entrepreneurs Jack Dorsey (creator of Twitter), Chris Hughes (co-founder of Facebook), Sean Parker (co-founder of Napster), and Mark Pincus (co-founder of Zynga); media/entertainment executives David Geffen (co-founder of Dreamworks SKG) and Bob Wright (former chairman and CEO of NBC Universal); NFL players Brendon Ayanbadejo and Scott Fujita; playwright Tony Kushner; civil rights icons Julian Bond, Chairman Emeritus, NAACP, and Helen Fabela Chavez (widow of Cesar Chavez and founder of Cesar E. Chavez Foundation); and Rev. Peter Morales (president, Unitarian Universalist Association).
Why Marriage Matters
Why Marriage Matters is Freedom to Marry’s national public education campaign designed to share stories and foster conversation about the love and commitment that forms the basis for marriage. The campaign was launched on February 14, 2011 and shows that marriage matters to gay and lesbian people in similar ways that it matters to everyone. Gay and lesbian couples want to get married to make a lifetime commitment to the person they love and to protect their families. The Why Marriage Matters campaign includes videos and stories from real people and real facts about why marriage matters.
Summer for Marriage
In 2010, Freedom to Marry launched their “Summer for Marriage” campaign countering the National Organization for Marriage’s anti-gay “One Man, One Woman” bus tour. Sean Eldridge stated “Our goal is to demonstrate that there are loving, committed same-sex couples across the US who deserve, and in some states now have, the protections and the responsibilities of marriage. We’re not going to let NOM get away with distracting from and distorting the truth about our families and the protections that we need.”[2]
Evan Wolfson, Founder and President of Freedom to Marry. Recognizing his longtime civil rights leadership in the movement for marriage, in 2004 TIME magazine named Evan one of the "100 most influential people in the world."[3] Wolfson was also named by the National Law Journal in 2000 as one of "the 100 most influential lawyers in America." Wolfson was co-counsel in the historic Hawaii marriage case that launched the ongoing global movement for the freedom to marry and has participated in numerous gay rights and HIV/AIDS cases. He argued before the U.S. Supreme Court in Boy Scouts of America v. Dale, served in the Peace Corps in West Africa, and is the author of Why Marriage Matters: America, Equality, and Gay People's Right to Marry, which was published by Simon & Schuster in July 2004. [4]
Sean Eldridge, Senior Adviser. Sean Eldridge is an investor and political activist. He is the President of Hudson River Ventures and a Senior Advisor at Freedom to Marry. Sean joined Freedom to Marry in 2010, serving initially as Communications Director and then as Political Director, a role in which he was instrumental in winning the freedom to marry to New York. As a spokesperson for Freedom to Marry, he has made the case for marriage in numerous media outlets, including Fox News, MSNBC, and CNN.
Sean resides in Garrison, NY with his partner Chris Hughes, a co-founder of Facebook.[5] Sean and Chris support progressive organizations and candidates across the country, and together they founded the Telos Foundation in 2011. They were featured on the cover of The Advocate's Forty under 40 issue in May 2011, honoring forty LGBT "leaders and newsmakers" under the age of 40.
Sean serves on the board of directors of Scenic Hudson, the largest environmental group focused on the Hudson River Valley, and GLAD (Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders), a legal organization dedicated to LGBT rights. Before joining Freedom to Marry, Sean served as a youth organizer for Barack Obama's 2008 Presidential campaign and was one of the early architects of the campaign's national student movement.
Marc Solomon, National Campaign Director. Marc joined Freedom to Marry after serving as executive director of MassEquality. Marc led the campaign to defeat two constitutional amendments in the first freedom to marry state in the nation. Following the victory in Massachusetts, Marc consulted with state-wide equality organizations in Connecticut and Vermont as well as Freedom to Marry, as part of the nationwide effort to end marriage discrimination. Most recently, Marc served as marriage director of Equality California, where Solomon led the largest state effort in movement history to make the case for the freedom to marry through face-to-face conversations.[6] In that campaign, EQCA field organizers and coalition partners organized hundreds of thousands of conversations at people’s doors, moved 26 percent of opponents with whom they spoke to be significantly more supportive, and helped grow public support for the freedom to marry in California to 50 percent. Marc has extensive background in advocacy, public policy, and media. [7]
Jo Deutsch, Federal Director. Jo Deutsch is the Federal Director for Freedom to Marry and oversees the campaign's Washington, D.C.-based work to overturn the so-called "Defense of Marriage Act" and end federal marriage discrimination. Jo's political career and activism began at 13 when she joined the National Organization for Women in Miami, Florida. Since then, she has dedicated both her personal and professional life to fighting for equality and rights for women, the LGBT community and the labor movement. Combining all her passions, Jo fought for the rights of working women and men including LGBT members while leading the federal legislative and political campaigns at the Association of Flight Attendants, the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees and the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union.[8]
Thalia Zepatos, Director of Public Engagement. Thalia Zepatos has thirty years’ experience as a community organizer, campaign manager and political consultant, focusing on building political power for underrepresented communities. She has recruited and trained candidates across the West and played key roles in defeating anti-choice ballot measures in several states. She has been fighting anti-LGBT ballot measures in her home state of Oregon since 1988, and has subsequently been involved in fighting dozens of other anti-gay measures in communities across the US. Zepatos served as the Director of Organizing and Training at the Task Force and served as a consultant for the National Collaborative before joining Freedom to Marry. Zepatos is the co-author of Women for a Change: A Grassroots Guide to Activism and Politics.
Since its founding, Freedom to Marry and its senior staff have been a subject in the media, as both a topic for its advocacy and as a resource regarding marriage for same-sex couples.
In the press:
National Journal, "Same Sex Marriage Supporters Looking for Conservative Support," November 2011
New York Times, "Evan Wolfson and Cheng He: Vows," October 2011
The Advocate, "Op-Ed: For Evan Wolfson, an 'I Do' Filled With 'I Did', October 2011
U.S. World and News Report, "Without Nationwide Gay Marriage, U.S. Government Discriminates, October 2011
TIME Magazine, "After New York: The (Near) Future of Gay Marriage, July 2011
Huffington Post, "The Freedom to Marry: What's Next After New York?, June 2011
The Advocate, "Freedom to Marry Announces Expansion Plans," January 2011
The Economist, "Single-Sex Marriage: This house believes that gay marriage should be legal," January 2011
Pacific Daily News, "Civil rights attorney promotes gay marriage", December 2010
Los Angeles Times, "Gains outweigh setback in landmark year for gay rights," December 2010
The Sunday Business Post, "A Very Civil Defense", December 2010
The Advocate, "The Message from Iowa", November 2010
Fox News, "Judges Ouster Stirs Debate", November 2010
New Jersey Record, "Seizing the Moment", October 2010
Anderson Cooper 360, "Same-Sex Marriage Ban Overturned", August 2010
The Advocate, "Freedom to Marry Announces Summer Tour", June 2010
The New York Times, "Ted Olson's Supreme Court Adventure", August 2009