Come and listen to 1 of the 100 most influential people in the world (Time Magazine)

22 Oct 2010

Evan Wolfson

THE FUTURE FOR GAY AND LESBIAN IRELAND

Marriage Equality and the National Lesbian and Gay Federation would like to invite you to listen to one of the hundred most influential people in the world as he asks 'what's next for Ireland's lesbian and gay community after a period of unprecedented change?'

Evan Wolfson, named by TIME magazine as one of the "100 most influential people in the world" (in the company of Nelson Mandela and the Dalai Lama amongst others) because of his longtime civil rights leadership in the movement for marriage equality is coming to Dublin on November 15th.

Founder and Executive Director of Freedom to Marry in the US, Evan was co-counsel in the historic Hawaii marriage case (the first marriage equality case in the world) and is the author of Why Marriage Matters: America, Equality and Gay People's Right to Marry. Evan is also a regular contributor to The Huffington Post.
John Cloud in Time magazine reported that Evan first wrote about marriage for same-sex couples in 1983, in a Harvard Law School paper. After graduation, he spent 10 years pressing the marriage issue. Fellow gay activists shushed him.

"For years," says Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force in the US, "many of us were saying to him, We're not ready. The country's not ready. And, by the way, you're crazy.'"

In 1990 three same-sex couples in Hawaii asked Wolfson to take their case. His employer, Lambda Legal, wouldn't let him, but he was able to advise a local attorney on the side. Three years later, the couples won in the state supreme court. Hawaii voters banned same-sex marriages before any weddings could take place, but the case made marriage equality seem attainable. Within a few years, the Netherlands became the first country to allow it and many more countries and American states have followed since.

Ireland has come to a point in history in terms of equality for gay and lesbian people, especially in the last year with the passing of the Civil Partnership Act, and now it is time to look into the future and ask: Where do we go from here? Marriage Equality and the NLGF have invited one of the world's leading gay rights activists to come and share his thoughts and opinions with us and we'd like you to hear him too.

Come and listen to Evan Wolfson's historic Irish address on November 15th from 1pm to 2pm in The Grafton Suite, Westbury Hotel, Dublin 2.
Spaces are limited to listen to this world leader in human rights, so please RSVP to dawn@marriagequality.ie to reserve your place.