After today’s historic victory for same-sex marriage at the Supreme Court, many LGBTQ activists and supporters are planning to move on to the next battles. But for organizations that were founded solely to promote marriage equality — back when that seemed like an uphill battle — the answer to “What’s next?” is: nothing. They’ve won.
What’s next for one same-sex marriage group? Nothing. They’ve won.
Freedom to Marry has been one of the most important organizations in the fight for same-sex marriage. The organization was founded in 2003, but its founder, Evan Wolfson, has been advocating for the cause since he wrote his Harvard Law School thesis on the right to same-sex marriage in 1983. Wolfson told Sheryl Gay Stolberg of the New York Times that “part of what made him cry” when he read Justice Anthony Kennedy’s decision in Obergefell v. Hodges “was how much so much of it resembled the paper I wrote 32 years ago.”
After today’s decision, the organization has accomplished its goal. Wolfson told the Times that “we will close in a matter of months.”
For Wolfson, this isn’t just an end to the organization he’s built; it’s the end of an identity he’s held for more than three decades. He told the Times he needs to “step back for a moment and really think about who I am when I’m not Mr. Marriage.”
