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Digging Deeper: How to Advance the Freedom to Marry
After understanding the basic issues involved in the struggle for the freedom to marry and fairness, it's time to dig deeper and learn more about the status, strategy, and flashpoints ahead in this movement, and how to get involved. Common questions include:
Q. How can we best move forward toward the vision of full marriage equality for all?
A. Marriage Equality is Within Reach, If We Do the Reaching (and Don't Under-Reach)
Evan Wolfson discusses the importance of those who favor equality and inclusion to help explain to the "reachable middle" why, "The right way to end discrimination in marriage is to, well, end discrimination in marriage. Not create something new, different, lesser, or other."
All Together Now (A Blueprint for the Movement) [MISSING LINK]
Laying out a plan for advancing marriage equality within a five-year framework, Evan Wolfson pulls together the key points and strategic approaches in one brief article.
Q. Are we winning or losing? What happens now that state laws are so divided on marriage? How can marriage equality supporters overcome defeats? Where will we see our next victories, building on the reality of couples married in places like Massachusetts, and the evidence that families are helped and no one hurt when marriage discrimianation ends?
A. From where I stand
Evan Wolfson describes the challenges of 2006, as well as the progress in 2007 and beyond. There are opportunities for good work in all states, whether they have anti-gay amendments or not. Marriage equality is within reach in all 50 states—if we do the reaching.
Pro-Marriage Incumbents and Candidates Win Elections (pdf)
Taking a stand to end the exclusion of same-sex couples from marriage does not hurt incumbents or candidates in their elections.
The Scary Work of Winning (pdf)
Evan Wolfson's seminal document outlining the marriage equality movement in the context of our nation's ongoing evolution toward equality.
Q. Shouldn't this civil rights movement be put on hold, since opponents keep stampeding through bad ballot measures—and since the country is divided?
A. Why the Dems should NOT shut up about gays and marriage
Evan Wolfson responds to August 16, 2007's piece in The New Republic, explaining that, "As public support for marriage equality continues to evolve, Democrats, thus already perceived as the party of 'gay marriage,' have a winning issue on their hands, one that evokes the best traditions of their party—fairness and inclusion. The conversation will not stop. Candidates who want to move on to other questions ought to get the freedom to marry question right—for their sake as well as the country's."
If You Want to Be a Leader, You Can't Be Afraid to Lead
Evan Wolfson critiques the Democratic Presidential candidates' "affirming," but still "incomplete and unconvincing" responses about the freedom to marry during the CNN/YouTube debate, offering the advice: "Ending the exclusion of same-sex couples from marriage is the clear and correct answer to the question of how to achieve equality. What's more: it is achievable. Candidates who say they want equality (and the votes of those who believe in equality) should be prepared to live up to their values and lead the way."
What do the 2004 election results mean for the movement toward marriage equality?
Evan Wolfson analyzes the 2004 election and its impact on the marriage equality movement saying, "In a second Bush term, whatever our opponents do, we can and will win, if we engage."
Q. Is ending marriage discrimination important to poor people? to young people? to others? Is it a question of economic justice and need as well as fairness?
A. For Richer, For Poorer: The Freedom to Marry as a Matter of Economic Justice (pdf)
Excluding same-sex couples from the economic and social benefits of marriage harms the most vulnerable, those of lesser means, immigrants, people who are ill, and children.
Visit our Communities section to learn more about how marriage discrimination affects all different types of people and communities.
Why Marriage Matters America, Equality, and Gay People's Right to Marry.
By Evan Wolfson
Read reviews! Purchase the book or receive a signed copy as a thank you for your donation!
Read families’ stories about how marriage discrimination affects everyday life. These stories communicate, in concrete ways, how the exclusion of same-sex couples from marriage hurts families and helps no one.
Start in The Marriage Basics to get short answers to your big questions about the freedom to marry, and learn more about the protections and responsibilities of marriage, the historical background for this civil rights movement, why separate is not equal, and so much more.
