Testimonials

It is not hyperbole to say that Evan Wolfson occupies the top slot when it comes to leaders responsible for winning marriage in the country. Evan's many years’ commitment and dogged determination rallied both the LGBT community and non-gay allies to support our full dignity and equality. Long before others, Evan believed we could win this fight.

Kate Kendall
National Center for Lesbian Rights

 


 

Evan Wolfson, without a doubt, is the modern day founder of the marriage equality movement. In good part, we have achieved our most recent victory in the Supreme Court because of his leadership and vision. He is a hero of mine.

David Mixner

 


 

Nothing about [the marriage fight] feels quick if you consider that Evan Wolfson, a chief architect of the political quest for same-sex marriage, wrote a thesis on the topic at Harvard Law School in 1983.

Frank Bruni
The New York Times, June 20, 2015

 


 

Given the momentum surrounding the issue it’s hard for many analysts to see the session ending without the justices affirming that gay couples have the right to marry. If they do, it would play right into the strategy of Freedom to Marry, the national campaign for marriage equality, which has been working to build pressure around the issue so the Court feels obligated to act.

Time Magazine, January 16, 2015

 


 

The relative speed of this victory...is a vindication of the notion that brave leaders for seemingly hopeless causes can still change this country by fighting step by step over years. When I first heard Evan Wolfson, the civil-rights lawyer of Freedom to Marry, outline his strategy to legalize same-sex marriage back in the previous century, I thought he was a dreamer. He was, but one who against so many odds made a big American dream come true.

Frank Rich
New York Magazine, October 9, 2014

 


 

America’s increasing acceptance of gay rights didn’t descend silently like snow in the middle of the night. It arose out of the grueling, indefatigable campaigns by groups like Freedom to Marry, whose activists spent thousands of hours bending the arc with their own hands.

Mark Joseph Stern
Slate.com, November 3, 2014

 


 

Wolfson has the cases, the president, many judges and lawmakers, nearly 20 states, and the public behind him.

Chris Geidner
BuzzFeed, January 23, 2014

 


 

[Freedom to Marry’s] strategy has helped lead to a stunning turnaround in public opinion on gay marriage and a series of electoral wins that laid the groundwork for the recent court rulings.

The Associated Press, January 20, 2014

 


 

For the past 25 years, Evan Wolfson, the founder and president of the nonprofit group Freedom to Marry, has been at the center of this rapidly growing political and social movement.

Richard Socarides
The Associated Press, December 2, 2013

 


 

Evan [Wolfson]’s vision of marriage equality has always been as generous and expansive and deserving of the word “vision” as his pursuit of it has been strategic, disciplined, and realistic. He saw, long before most of us could see it, that marriage equality was an achievable goal with a vast promise. He saw that marriage equality would be a critical advance in the struggle for LGBT enfranchisement, and, as such, a contribution to the nation – and, as such, an enlargement of the democratic spirit, essential to that spirit’s survival...

Tony Kushner, Pultizer Prize-winning playwright
Empire State Pride Agenda Fall Dinner on October 17, 2013

 


 

The indispensable man in bringing marriage equality to America is Evan Wolfson ... History will one day see him as the critical legal critic, community organizer, and strategic activist behind this movement.

Andrew Sullivan
The Dish, May 15, 2012

 


 

Even foes such as the Family Research Council's Tony Perkins acknowledge that Young Conservatives for the Freedom to Marry and its allies this year are better organized in this fight than his side.

The National Journal, March 28, 2015

 


 

The Godfather of gay marriage - Evan Wolfson is considered a pioneer who not only saw the legal arguments but advocated embracing the ‘vocabulary’ of marriage when even progressive activists fretted about moving too fast.

Lois Romano
The Daily Beast, July 20, 2011