PODCAST: Interview with Evan Wolfson from Freedom to Marry

A Shanty No Lemon's Anthony Anselmo interviews Evan Wolfson about the importance of telling our stories and explaining why marriage matters to each of us. By talking about values and making it personal and emotional, you can touch people's hearts as well as their minds -- and we all need to do that now to create space for politicians, candidates, and judges to rise to fairness.

21:56 min

PODCAST: Evan Wolfson discusses how marriage is important to the civil rights struggle for gay people nationwide

Evan Wolfson joined John Selig on OutSpoken Tuesday, July 31, 2007. He discussed what drives him in the fight for marriage equality, how it felt to be named one of Time's 100 most influential people, why the word "marriage matters," and how exclusion from the freedom to marry unfairly punishes committed same-sex couples and their families by depriving them of critical assistance, security, and obligations in virtually every area of life from the birth of children to death.

1hr 2min

Freedom to Marry: The Road Ahead

Equality is not just a gay issue! Marriage discrimination infringes upon the civil rights and freedom of every American, gay and non-gay. Listen to Evan Wolfson discuss the freedom to marry movement in its historical context, and underscore the urgency of galvanizing the hearts and minds of Californians. CA, the first state to strike down racial discrimination in marriage, was also the first to pass a historic marriage equality bill in both houses of its legislature in 2006, before its veto by Gov. Schwarzenegger. The people's representatives in the most populous state continue to do the good work that, up until now, judges have done in other states.

1hr 19min

Loving Day and the freedom to marry

Stuart Gaffney and his parents have something in common. His marriage to his husband and their interracial marriage were declared void by the law.


Broadcast: 06/25/2007

PODCAST: Professor Barbara Cox discusses the Loving decision on California Western School of Law's podcast Law in 10

Professor Barbara Cox joins Law in 10 on the 40th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court decision to strike down Virginia's law (Loving v. Virginia) prohibiting interracial couples from marrying. She talks about the significance of this decision and what we can all learn from it today.


Broadcast: 06/12/2007

MA Governor Patrick presents the case for marriage equality

On his official website, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick presented the case for why state legislators ought to vote down the proposed constitutional amendment aimed at taking away same-sex couples's freedom to marry.


Broadcast: 06/07/2007

Evan Wolfson discusses Loving v. Virginia on TalkBack! with Hugh Hamilton

June 12th marks the 40th anniversary of Loving v. Virginia, the landmark Supreme Court decision that advanced racial equality and the freedom to marry in America.

In 1967, Virginia residents Richard Loving and Mildred Jeter, an interracial couple, married in Washington DC. When they returned home, they were arrested for violating Virginia's Racial Integrity Act, which prohibited their marriage. The couple challenged the arrest all the way to the US Supreme Court. Writing in a unanimous decision, Chief Justice Earl Warren stated that banning interracial marriages constituted "invidious racial discrimination," thus violating the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment.

Committed, loving couples whose relationships had previously been treated with legal disregard and societal disrespect were finally able to marry.

Evan Wolfson discusses this landmark case and the celebration to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Loving decision spearheaded by a coalition of organizations led by Freedom to Marry.


Broadcast: 06/04/2007, 4:00 p.m.

Minnesota Public Radio hosts marriage debate

Richard Mohr, a professor of philosophy at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and author of a number of books on gay rights, most recently, "The Long Arc of Justice: Lesbian and Gay Marriage, Equality and Rights," squared off with Dwight Duncan, a professor at Southern New England School of Law in Massachusetts, who got his degree at the Vatican. Mohr does a great job of articulating what marriage is really about.

Broadcast: Midday, 05/08/2007, 12:00 p.m.

Evan Wolfson on CNN Situation Room

Evan Wolfson responds to Senator Clinton's statement on the morality of same-sex relations, that she would "leave that to others to conclude," following General Pace's discriminatory statement on the issue. Mr. Wolfson expresses hope that Senator Clinton would make her stance clear.

GLAD Podcast: Next Steps towards Marriage Equality

Last Thursday GLAD attorney Ben Klein discussed GLAD's lawsuit for equal marriage in Connecticut on a conference call. GLAD filed briefs at the Connecticut Supreme Court just before Thanksgiving and they expect oral arguments in the spring. You can also listen to Ben's analysis by accessing the audio file on their website.

From NPR: A personal view of marriage equality

A Personal View of Same-Sex Marriage
News & Notes, November 14, 2006 · The New Jersey Supreme Court recently declared the state's same-sex marriage ban unconstitutional. Two of the plaintiffs in that case, Alicia Heath-Toby and Saundra Toby-Heath, describe what marriage means to them.

Evan Wolfson debates Maggie Gallagher at the Jewish Theological Seminary

Jewish Theological Seminary, New York
October 16, 2006
Debating Maggie Gallagher of the Institute for Marriage and Public Policy, a prolific opponent of gay couples' freedom to marry, Evan Wolfson quotes Ronald Reagan's critique of those who "see something happen in practice and wonder if it will work in theory."

WI State Senator Mark Miller on civil rights and marriage

Excerpts from an interview by John Quinlan on the public affairs radio program, Forward Forum, which aired on July 29, 2006 on WXXM, The Mic, 92.1 (www.themic921.com) in Madison, WI. State Senator Miller reflects on the parallels between laws that had historically prohibited interracial marriage and current prohibitions against marriage for same sex couples. He draws on his own experiences in the late 1960s, early in his marriage to Jo Oyama-Miller, his Japanese-American wife, when the young couple lived lived in Alabama--a state where it was still technically illegal for them to be married. The 13 minute clip also includes excerpts from a speech that then State Rep. delivered on the floor of the WI State Assembly March 4, 2004.

Evan Wolfson Keynotes Kentucky Fairness Alliance Dinner 2 Years After Constitutional Amendment Vote

Speaking in Lexington, KY on October 7, 2006, Evan urges the 700+ non-gay and gay attendees not to "let the constitutional amendment be the last word," but rather, lay out a vision for how to move forward and win marriage equality for the thousands of Kentucky same-sex couples and their kids that the "reachable middle" has only begun to get to know.

Marriage equality leader debates VA anti-gay amendment sponsor

Del. Robert Marshall, R-Manassas, and Evan Wolfson debated the issue of marriage equality, and more specifically the Marshall-Newman Amendment concerning same-sex marriage co-sponsored by Marshall.