Born On This Day- February 4th... Crusader Evan Wolfson

Evan Wolfson is Executive Director of Freedom to Marry, the leading campaign to win marriage equality nationwide. His national leadership on marriage equality & his appearance before the U.S. Supreme Court in Boy Scouts of America v. James Dale, prompted the National Law Journal to named Evan one of "the 100 most influential lawyers in America." In 2004, Time magazine named Evan one of "the 100 most influential people in the world."

 

In 2004, he published a book,- Why Marriage Matters, in an attempt to create dialogue with straight Americans who don’t realize that civil unions are a parallel alternative, & not on an equal footing with marriage.


Wolfson: “Gay marriage is not what we’re looking for. We’re looking for the legal right for gays to marry. You don’t ask for half a loaf. We don’t need two lines at the clerk’s office when there’s already an institution that works in this country, & it’s called marriage. One of the main protections that come with marriage is inherent in the word: certainly in times of crisis any other word than marriage would not bring the same clarity or impart the same dignity.”


His passion for Marriage Equality does not mean Wolfson wants to get hitched. No one has put a ring on it, he is not even engaged. Wolfson: “Why get engaged, if you aren’t allowed to get married?”


Before attending Harvard, he spent 2 years with the Peace Corps in Togo in West Africa, where he had his first gay relationship. After law school, he was recruited by the Brooklyn district attorney’s office.


Wolfson worked as a prosecutor from 1983 to 1988 , writing amicus briefs arguing for a ban on racial discrimination in jury selection & the abolition of the marital rape exemption. He did pro bono work for Lambda from 1984 to 1988. Which meant he had to “come out” professionally.


With Lambda, he represented James Dale, the ousted Eagle Scout, against the Boy Scouts of America, & participated in Baker v. State, which led to civil unions in Vermont.


Jewish, portly, short, & bald, Wolfson is just my type. He is a Blogger. He turns 53 today.


Wolfson & his significant other for the last 6 years, Cheng He, a Canadian whose field is molecular biology, are not married- “but we would love the opportunity to have that choice.”