Evan Wolfson Quotations

Gay people want the freedom to marry for the same reasons non-gay people do.

Marriage is also a social statement, preeminently describing and defining a person's relationship and place in society. Marital status, along with what we do for a living, is often one of the first pieces of information we give to others about ourselves. It's so important, in fact, that most married people wear a symbol of their marriage on their hand.

Marriage is a language of love, equality, and inclusion.

Marriage ... has historically been a battlefield, the site of collisions within and between governments and religions over who should regulate it. But marriage has weathered centuries of skirmishes and change. It has evolved from an institution that was imposed on some people and denied to others, to the loving union of companionship, commitment, and caring between equal partners that we think of today.

Courts should always do the right thing. But if winning were as simple as making a good argument and filing a good brief, then we would have won the freedom to marry 40 years ago. We must put the legal work next to the public education work next to the legislative work next to the organizing work, and that's what's brought us so far.

When it comes to federal programs, even if states are discriminating, the federal government should not.

The 1913 law is an artifact of an era of trying to block racial equality. It's serving its mission of discrimination.

I think it's terrific. I think (Feingold) has given one more indication that as people think this through, they realize, as he said, that it's time to end this discrimination.

I think there's tremendous significance and opportunity in Americans seeing legally married gay couples treated with respect in our nation's capital.

What is so powerful here is that we have the first federal appellate court and it's a case coming out of Utah affirming in the strongest, clearest, boldest terms that the Constitution guarantees the freedom to marry and equal protection for all Americans and all means all, including gay couples.