Freedom to Marry (The)

It’s 102 nail-biting days before last year’s Supreme Court decision on whether same-sex marriage will be legal in all fifty states, and Evan Wolfson—“the Marriage Guy”—isn’t pacing the floor. Instead, he’s confidently preparing supportive briefs to let the justices know that America is ready for this momentous change. In fact, Wolfson saw the revolution coming decades earlier.

When Wolfson wrote his 1983 thesis, titled Gay People and the Freedom to Marry, at Harvard Law School, the legal argument was so unheard of that he risked becoming a laughingstock. But nothing, not even the AIDS crisis, deterred him from becoming the godfather of the marriage equality movement for the next 32 years. Spearheading action in the United States and decisively influencing it abroad, Wolfson ultimately founded the game-changing advocacy organization Freedom to Marry. By sharing the stories of real LGBT people and their lives of love, commitment, and family—including the story of his own relationship with his husband Cheng He—Wolfson helped transform the country’s understanding of who gay people are and why discrimination is wrong.

Director Eddie Rosenstein’s inspirational documentary traces the marriage equality movement’s historic progress, also profiling Mary Bonauto, Civil Rights Attorney for GLAD, who joins forces with Wolfson to argue the case of a lifetime—as, at the edge of our seats, we count down (all over again) towards the landmark Obergefell v. Hodges decision. This film adds crucial context to that momentous day.

— Brian Bromberger

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