Freedom to Marry

09/25/2026

I was honored to speak at a United Nations program yesterday in conjunction with the UN General Assembly. Please check out the video below, distilling (in a tight timeframe) key lessons for change that can be applied to other causes and threats, including the authoritarian playbook, climate change, and even AI.

Here's how the UN summarized the presentation:

"Evan Wolfson of Freedom to Marry and Jeremy Heimans of Purpose examined how movements such as the fight for marriage equality transformed silent majorities into visible support. Speakers emphasized the importance of clear goals, strong leadership, broad coalitions, and incremental wins, while urging climate advocates to counter polarization and disinformation by demanding accountability from AI companies and building political power directly. Moderated by Melissa Fleming, UN Under-Secretary-General for Global Communications."

A panel on what climate movements can do to build public solidarity.

08/26/2026

I belatedly came across this piece extolling the Freedom to Marry model as a way more causes (indeed all of us) can up our game on tackling many of the big problems confronting our world today -- from climate change to access to health care to the reinvigoration of liberal democracy here in the US and worldwide.

The author writes:

"In 1983, Evan Wolfson wrote his Harvard Law thesis arguing for marriage equality grounded in a deep, early belief that exclusion from marriage was a fundamental denial of dignity and citizenship, and that winning it would unlock broader equality.

In 2003, he founded Freedom to Marry, an organization with a clear, specific goal: Full legal access to civil marriage for same-sex couples in every U.S. state, on the same terms and with the same recognition as different-sex couples. And, he articulated a clear strategy for Freedom to Marry: win enough states to create momentum, shift public opinion, then get a Supreme Court ruling (and importantly, don’t push for national resolution until public opinion had shifted enough).

Wolfson wore many hats. He reviewed polling and message-testing constantly, coached spokespeople before media appearances, intervened in state campaigns when messaging drifted, fundraised relentlessly, and mediated disputes between national and local groups. He decided not to litigate cases that others wanted if public sentiment wasn’t far enough along. He was disciplined, unsentimental, willing to be disliked, and focused on a single, verifiable outcome. In short, Wolfson developed a theory of change and executed it for 30 years.

In 2015, the Supreme Court ruled in Obergefell v Hodges., requiring states to license marriages between same-sex couples and to recognize same-sex marriages lawfully performed in other states."

H/t my friend, Ian Bassin of Protect Democracy

There’s a surprisingly big category of problems that are ‘orphaned.’ By ‘orphaned’ I mean: you can’t point to a specific person or organization who thinks it’s their responsibility to deliver the outcome in its entirety.

08/17/2026

Same-sex couples and their families weren’t simply granted the freedom to marry by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2015 – they fought for decades to make the case with their friends, families, neighbors, lawmakers, judges, and other decision-makers. The story of how we won the freedom to marry is a story, in part, of popular constitutionalism – and that’s the focus of this new episode of Slate.com’s “Amicus” podcast, hosted by Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern. Don’t miss Marc Solomon, Freedom to Marry's former National Campaign Director, sharing the history of the movement and highlights from the work that so many did to achieve victory. https://bit.ly/4xxGNZz

08/03/2026

"In at least two ways, [the Freedom to Marry] campaign offers lessons and a path forward for the most urgent task upon us all at this time: the defense and reinvigoration of American liberal democracy."

In his 2016 book Engines of Liberty, David Cole explores the question of how constitutional change happens.

06/06/2026

I was very touched and surprised to see this profile appear on Substack, especially because the author did such an excellent job distilling and offering lessons from my work for the urgent work still upon us -- most notably, defending and reinvigorating liberal democracy here at home in the US and worldwide.

Profiles in Leadership: The Pittsburgh Series

05/20/2026

He had his flaws, we had our disagreements, and, like so many who worked with him, I had a few face-to-face arguments with him (which wasn't easy)...but was a giant, a pioneer, and a hero. As one of my college professors once remarked, in a turn of phrase that has stuck with me ever since, "It's not that great men have feet of clay; it's that men with feet of clay can still be great." And Barney was great -- brilliant, skillful, courageous, and, of course, endlessly witty.

My favorite personal moment with Barney was when he confessed to me, years down the road, that in our fight to win the freedom to marry, over which we had tussled, he had been "under-optimistic." My favorite quote of his I cannot recount here. 🙂

Congress needs the likes of him. And I will miss him.

05/13/2026

Another huge step forward in -- respect for marriages celebrated abroad, and movement toward the Freedom to Marry throughout . Congrats to the activists leading the way.

Miłość nie wyklucza Kampania Przeciw Homofobii

He also apologized for the “years of rejection and humiliation” that same-sex couples have experienced in Poland.

04/30/2026

Check out the conversation I had the other day with Democrats Abroad on what's at stake for LGBTQ+ Americans in the upcoming mid-term elections -- and what we all can do to defend and reinvigorate liberal democracy in the US and globally.

LINK HERE: http://bit.ly/427gUlO
PASSCODE HERE:

Some takeaways from our chat:
- Keep up on the news, but don't let yourself get overwhelmed by it. No wallowing! Focus on the pathway, not the problem.
- Find LGBT or ally organizations you can support financially or as a volunteer, as well as supportive candidates in key contests/swing states.
-Focus on and amplify the positive things that have happened for democracy lately (Democrats winning most special elections, regime change in Hungary, good court rulings in Poland, Hungary, etc.)
- Engage people in conversation, remind young people of their power and lessons from history on resilience, strategy, and hope
- And most importantly...VOTE, and get your friends, family, and others in your community to do so as well.

Overseas Americans, for more info on voting from abroad visit https://www.votefromabroad.org

Vote from Abroad: Helping US Citizens Request Their Absentee Ballot to Vote from Outside the US

04/16/2026

New data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows that the number of households led by same-sex couples has doubled since 2005 – and that many of these couples are married and raising children. It’s further evidence of the positive impacts of the freedom to marry, which has helped millions of Americans build their lives with confidence, dignity, and respect. Read more from the Census: https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2026/04/same-sex-couples.html

04/14/2026

Recent campaigns to undercut marriage equality have attacked kids, claiming that children of same-sex couples have been harmed by the freedom to marry. In a new article in the Los Angeles Times, Ben Karney – lead author of a RAND Corporation report on twenty years of the freedom to marry in the United States – debunks these claims. “If any harm resulted from allowing same-sex couples to marry, it ought to be well documented by now,” he writes. Read the full piece: https://bit.ly/482B3wL