Evan Wolfson, Director of Freedom to Marry, declares the fight for gay marriage “one of the first important civil rights campaigns of the 21st century.” A noted attorney who has litigated in areas such as racial discrimination and rights for battered women, Wolfson locates the fight for gay marriage within a long protest tradition in America working to fulfill the promise of our founding documents.
In Why Marriage Matters, he frames the issue by pointing out that marriage is the legal gateway to a whole set of protections, benefits, and responsibilities. The right to marry is, he insists, a pivotal element of citizenship, and he convincingly demonstrates the real consequences of being denied that right. Wolfson surveys past battles over marriage, a context in which it becomes clear that legalization of gay marriage is a natural step in our nation’s evolution. To his line of argument from the standpoint of the law and how he presents it, I say bravo.
