Welcome to Original Jurisdiction, the latest legal publication by me, David Lat. You can learn more about Original Jurisdiction by reading its About page, and you can email me at davidlat@substack.com. This is a reader-supported publication; you can subscribe by clicking here. Thanks!
Happy Pride—and happy June 26. As the Supreme Court hands down its final decisions of the Term over the next few days, it’s worth reflecting on how June 26 is the day the Court issued three of its landmark gay-rights decisions: Lawrence v. Texas (2003), United States v. Windsor (2013), and Obergefell v. Hodges (2015).
Obergefell was issued in 2015, the same year that my husband Zach and I got married. And I would say that we—and really all married same-sex couples in the United States—owe a debt of gratitude to my podcast guest for today: Evan Wolfson, founder of Freedom to Marry, the groundbreaking campaign that won marriage equality in the United States and ignited a global movement. Evan has garnered many awards for his work over the years, including recognition as one of the 100 most influential lawyers in America by The National Law Journal and one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time Magazine.
What led Evan to focus his career on the fight for same-sex marriage? What was his thinking in launching Freedom to Marry? What are some secrets of the success of the marriage-equality movement? And what lessons can it offer to other struggles for social justice?
Check out our conversation to learn all this and more. Thanks to Evan for joining me—and for his decades of work in advancing marriage equality and LGBTQ rights, both in the United States and around the globe.
Show Notes:
Evan Wolfson bio, Dentons
What the Freedom to Marry Campaign Can Teach Middle East Peacemakers, by Evan Wolfson for U.S. News & World Report
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