Freedom to Marry

The odds are improving that President Obama will endorse marriage equality before the November election, according to an informed source. The chances that Obama will make such an announcement before the election are looking better than in previous months as the issue receives growing media attention.

Elizabeth Warren, who is running to unseat U.S. Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.), pledged to support a series of pro-LGBT initiatives and called on President Obama to endorse marriage equality in an exclusive interview with the Washington Blade on Tuesday.

COLUMBUS, Ohio — A proposed amendment to undo Ohio’s 2004 constitutional ban on same-sex marriage ban was submitted Thursday to the state Attorney General. The amendment would change the state’s Constitution to read that the definition of marriage would be “a union of two consenting adults, regardless of gender.”

TRENTON, N.J. — New Jersey Republican Governor Chris Christie on Friday afternoon vetoed a bill approved by the state legislature that would legalize same-sex marriage — just six hours after it reached his desk.

Jeremy Hooper at Good As You calls our attention to Sunday’s televised “debate” on same-sex marriage between Freedom to Marry President Evan Wolfson and National Organization for Marriage President Brian Brown.

WASHINGTON – A broad coalition of more than 50 civil rights, labor, progressive, faith, student, health, legal, women’s, and LGBT organizations on Thursday announced support of the Respect for Marriage Act– the bill to repeal the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) that withholds federal protections for legally married gay and lesbian couples. The group, […]

WASHINGTON — “Freedom to Marry,” a New York-based marriage equality advocacy organization, on Friday announced a bipartisan coalition of more than 80 mayors from across the U.S. who have publicly stated their support for marriage equality for LGBT citizens, and their intention to work toward that goal.

From the repeal of “Don’t Ask-Don’t Tell,” a policy which had banned gays and lesbians from serving openly in the U. S. military, to winning strategic battles in gaining civil unions and full marriage equality for same-sex couples in several states, victories in a significant series of elective offices across the country, 2011 ended on an upbeat note for the nation’s LGBTQ community.

One leading advocate called 2011 an “epic” year for marriage equality. Was it? While only one state — New York — enacted full marriage rights for same-sex couples, it was the most populous state to do so. Five other states also moved closer to marriage equality than ever before. Public opinion shifted dramatically towards supporting equality. And the Obama administration announced that it no longer considers a key part of the Defense of Marriage Act constitutional.

In 2010, the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), a tax-exempt nonprofit trying to thwart the legalization of same-sex marriage throughout the U.S., reported the highest individual donations it has received since its inception in 2007, according to NOM’s most recent income disclosures to the Internal Revenue Service, recently obtained by The American Independent.