Subject: Fwd: Lambda Update on the Freedom to Marry - Oct. 1996
From: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 10 Oct 1996 18:33:43 -0400

---------------------
Forwarded message:
Subj:    Lambda Update on the Freedom to Marry - Oct. 1996
Date:    96-10-10 10:26:57 EDT
From:    EW LLDEF

Aloha, all --

Here is Lambda's overview of the progress we have made in our struggle to win
the freedom to marry, following the historic events of this year,
particularly September.  Please feel free to circulate it, and to join with
National Freedom to Marry Coalition organizations and state partners in
renewed and redoubled efforts as we prepare for a December decision in Hawaii
and the work ahead in every state, in 1997.  Thanks to all who have been
working so hard; lots more to do as we move closer toward winning equal
marriage rights!

One additional note:  People should call or e-mail Court TV to urge them to
air the full, gavel-to-gavel coverage of our Hawaii trial, in addition to the
two-hour summary they showed on Sept. 30 (and which is being re-broadast
tomorrow, Thursday, Oct. 10, at 3:30pm EST, with call-in to follow).  Court
TV (which has been cooperative)  filmed the trial in its entirety; now we
should request them to show it, either when the judge hands down his decision
or now.  Make sure Court TV knows that interest in this case is high, and we
want to see it in full, by going to their website (www.courttv.com) and
hitting the "feedback" button, or e-mailing at [email-masked] or
[email-masked].  Please make the requests friendly.

Thanks --

Evan Wolfson
Director
The Marriage Project
Lambda Legal Defense & Education Fund
666 Broadway, 12th Floor
NY, NY 10012
212-995-8585-voice
212-995-2306-fax
_________________________________________

            THE FREEDOM TO MARRY: EYES ON THE PRIZE
                  by Evan Wolfson, Marriage Project Director
                              October 1996 (Update 6)

     September 10 saw a historic convergence of events that reflect our
enormous
progress toward winning the freedom to marry.  In Honolulu, Lambda's landmark
Baehr
v. Miike trial began, and the government, for once, was required to justify
its harsh sex
discrimination in civil marriage.  On the same day, clear across the country,
the United
States Senate shamed itself by approving the federal anti-marriage bill with
the
Orwellian title, the "Defense of Marriage Act" (DOMA).  

     By the end of September, with the Hawaii trial concluded and the federal
bill signed
into law by President Clinton, several truths were as clear as the dawn on a
bright new
day.

     First, once the government was obliged to give a reason for refusing
same-sex
couples the freedom to marry, the trial showed that it doesn't have one!  In
two powerful
weeks of testimony, day after day, the state's pitiful and offensive
rationales were
undermined by their own witnesses, and soundly rebuffed by the national and
local
experts my co-counsel Dan Foley and I called to the stand.  

     The decision is now in the hands of the lower court, and ultimately, the
Hawaii
Supreme Court, with a final decision expected in 1998.  But as we wrapped up
the trial,
it seemed to me that everyone in that courtroom, from the national and local
press to
the committed activists, from the public to our ferocious opponents, from our
terrific
client couples to us, the attorneys... everyone felt the power of the truths
that had been
established, under legal process, about lesbian and gay lives and love, about
our
families and our children, about equality and our equal human right to share
in the
freedom to marry.  I know everyone felt the force of history with us in
Hawaii that day --
we are winning the freedom to marry and the equality it represents.

     Second, the election-year passage of DOMA, while despicable, was a
historic
concession by our enemies.  When 1996 began, they said the idea of "gay" and
"marriage" in the same sentence was laughable, and would never happen.  With
DOMA, they acknowledge that lesbians and gay men will indeed win the freedom
to
marry, so now they want to discriminate against those lawful marriages!  

     Inserting the federal government into marriage for the first time in
U.S. history,
DOMA creates a radical caste-system of first- and second-class marriages.  If
the
federal government likes whom you marry, you get a vast array of legal and
economic
protections and recognition.  If the federal government doesn't like whom you
married,
recognition and protection are withdrawn in all circumstances.  DOMA's
blatant violation
of constitutional principles of federalism, non-discrimination, and respect
for lawful
marriages shows this political assault to be, not just gay-bashing, but, in
the words of
The New York Times, "constitution bashing."

     DOMA is not -- as our enemies would like America to believe -- the end
of our
struggle to win the freedom to marry. It is merely one more mountain on our
march. 
Once we win the freedom to marry, we will challenge this sweeping and
invidious
federal discrimination as couples fight to protect their families and their
lawful
marriages, state by state, court by court. 

     In the battles that will follow our victory in Hawaii, Lambda and others
will fight until it
is clear that just as we are not supposed to have second-class citizens in
America, so
we should not have second-class marriages.  

     Finally, our enemies have failed in their effort to squelch the rich and
pervasive
public discussion that began with our case in Hawaii.  As long as we (gay
people and
non-gay allies) continue to engage the public, we will continue to enlist
fair-minded
people to our side.  Once people see lawfully-married same-sex couples being
discriminated against, and our country forced into absurd "now you're
married/now
you're not" contortions, the discrimination will fall.  Our enemies may want
America to
be a "house divided," but most Americans will not.  Poll after poll, and, for
that matter,
election result after election result, shows that even those who do not yet
support equal
marriage rights for gay people do not like the anti-marriage attacks of our
opponents. 
The force of history is with us.

     But there is no marriage without engagement.  DOMA only serves to
highlight what
Lambda has said now for years:  We are in a struggle for the map of the
country.  This
year, the Christian Coalition and their ilk pressured legislatures in 37
states to consider
anti-marriage legislation; we beat them back in 21!  But next year, they will
be back.  

     We must seize this historic moment of public engagement to reach out to
non-gay
people.  We must reject opponents' efforts, as well as the ambivalence,
denial, or
timidity of those within our own movement, who wish to avoid this battle and
moment. 
As Martin Luther King, Jr. reminds us, "In this Revolution, no plans have
been written
for retreat.  Those who will not get into step will find that the parade has
passed them
by."

     A century before him, Frederick Douglass wrote:

     If there is no struggle, there is no progress.  Those who profess to
favor freedom
     and yet deprecate agitation are people who want crops without plowing up
the
     ground.  They want rainwithout thunder and lightning....  Power concedes
     nothing without a demand.  It never did and never will.  People might
not get all
     they work for in this world, but they certainly must work for all they
get.

     And during the congressional debate on DOMA, civil rights hero Rep. John
Lewis
(D-Georgia) rose to declare:

     This bill is a slap in the face of the Declaration of Independence.  It
denies
     gay men and women the right to liberty and the pursuit of happiness.....

     Marriage is a basic human right.  Dr. King used to say when people
talked
     about interracial marriage,  Races do not fall in love and get married. 
     Individuals fall in love and get married.'...I have known racism.  I
have
     known bigotry. This bill stinks of the same fear, hatred, and
intolerance.  It
     should not be called the Defense of Marriage Act.  It should be called
the
     defense of mean-spirited bigots act....  Every word, every purpose,
every
     message is wrong.  It is not the right thing to do, to divide America.

     All of America is now talking about our equality and families, and about
our freedom
to marry.  It is our task at this time to engage, fully and with
determination, knowing that
history is with us as we move forward in Hawaii, throughout the country, and,
indeed,
across the globe, to full equality and inclusion for lesbians, gay men, and
those we love. 
It is a struggle not just for marriage, not just for gay people, but for what
kind of country
we want this to be.  And we will win.