Features
Evan Wolfson to Speak in VT
Joan Gardner is World Powerlifting Champion
International
Leader Evan Wolfson
to Speak in Vermont
by
Bennett Law
The national spotlight shining on
the marriage equality issue will follow Evan Wolfson, founder and executive
director of Freedom to Marry and author of Why Marriage Matters: America,
Equality, and Gay People’s Right to Marry, to his Burlington
speaking engagement this month.
Wolfson is recognized internationally as
a leader in the marriage equality movement, and in 2004 TIME magazine
named him one of the “100 most influential people in the world.”
In addition to his impressive history of
commitment to the marriage issue, dating back to his service as co-counsel
in the historic Hawaii marriage case that jumpstarted the entire movement,
Wolfson’s advocacy of LGBT rights brought him before the U.S. Supreme
Court to argue in Boy Scouts of America v. Dale.
Wolfson took a few minutes to speak with OITM
about his work and the crucial role Vermont is poised once again to play
in leading marriage equality forward on the national stage.
OITM: What do you feel the prospects are for a federal
constitutional amendment to deny same-gender marriage?
Wolfson: This is not a federal amendment banning marriage.
It is an anti-gay amendment intended to deny marriage and impede anyother
protections afforded gay people, large or small. Buying into the packaging
of this as an antimarriage amendment buys into the right wing’s
bait and switch tactic on this issue.
I think it is very unlikely that we will
see an amendment, but the threat itself is dangerous. The even greater
danger we face is the state-bystate attack erecting barriers and piling
greater discrimination on our families.
OITM: Do you think marriage equality will play a role
in the 2006 and 2008 elections?
Wolfson: Yes, absolutely. This is a civil rights question
of how our country treats individuals and families and it requires a conversation
with our fellow Americans that has only just begun. The right wing is
trying to shut that conversation down.
We need to continue this conversation
with our fellow citizens, because it is through this conversation that
the issues are understood and we become known to our neighbors.
The majority of Americans do not rank attacks
on gay people or questions of gay inclusion as important issues. Our job
is to give enough people enough information early enough - that is, with
enough time to thoughtfully consider it, understand it and absorb it -
so they will not be vulnerable to scare tactics whipped up by right wing
political operatives during the election season. We must engage in the
conversation.
OITM: What do you see as Vermont’s role in the drive to
secure marriage equality nationally?
Wolfson: Vermont helped lead the nation forward in recognition
of gay families and in the dismantling of discrimination around marriage,
but didn’t finish the job. Now I’m confident that you will.
Having given your non-gay neighbors in Vermont
a chance to take a deep breath and to absorb civil unions, we now see
a clear plurality in Vermont favoring marriage over civil unions and coming
to recognize that the work is not done on this issue. You in Vermont know
how to organize and push forward to complete the job, and your efforts
will move Vermont back into a position of leadership nationally.
OITM: What do you see as the states on the front line,
so to speak, in the march for marriage equality?
Wolfson: We are in courts in several states, including
the high courts of Washington, New Jersey, and New York. Other important
court cases are making their way through the judiciaries of California,
Connecticut, Maryland, and Iowa. At the same time, legislative efforts
to end marriage discrimination are underway; in addition to Vermont, in
California, Connecticut, and Rhode Island.
OITM: What do you feel will prove the more effective
in moving marriage equality forward - legislative gains or victories in
court cases?
Wolfson: Both are historically valid, legitimate, and
necessary. We don’t have to choose one or the other. Both are very
much parts of the American system of fairness in government.
We have to make the effort to help diffuse
anxieties, and trust that people will rise to fairness. In Vermont you’ve
done it before and shown that it can be done. You’ve also shown
that people can absorb growth and inclusion - we’ve seen the complete
yawn that civil unions have become, when just five years ago there was
intense political controversy surrounding them. You can do the same thing
now to get us to what we deserve, which is full marriage equality.
Bennett Law, a member of the board of directors of the Vermont Freedom
to Marry Task Force, lives in Bethel with the man he intends to marry.