S/he said
"You can't say you are for equality and yet acquiesce in exclusion from the central social and legal institution of this and virtually every society. All prejudice, all discrimination, is painful and wrong, but as Dr. King knew, the worst kind of discrimination, the most intolerable, is discrimination by the government itself against any group of us. The denial of the freedom to marry is state-sponsored discrimination against gay people, and we must end it."
– Evan Wolfson, executive director of Freedom to Marry, in his speech titled "Is the Freedom to Marry Inevitable?," given at University of Michigan Law School's 25th MLK Symposium, in celebration of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, http://www.freedomtomarry.org, Jan. 17.
"This is a monumental turning point in the history of the quest for equality for lesbian, gay and bisexual people. The President and the Attorney General recognized today what we have been saying in court since the day we opened our doors: Discriminating against people on the basis of sexual orientation should be presumed to be unconstitutional and unconstitutional laws should not be defended. It is past time for DOMA to become only an ugly part of our nation's history."
– Jon W. Davidson, legal director of Lambda Legal, in a press release titled "Lambda Legal Applauds DOJ Announcement that it Will No Longer Defend "Defense of Marriage Act," http://www.lambdalegal.org, Feb. 23.
"I feel like the lives and the experiences of LGBT folks goes unrecognized and is often misrepresented. I thought it was important to get an explanation and their stories out so we could have a fuller understanding of race-based prosecution and punishment in the U.S. Many of the LGBT people who we see ensnared in the system are LGBT people of color."
– Joey L. Mogul, attorney, co-author of "Queer (In)Justice: The Criminalization of LGBT People in the United States," a groundbreaking book about the harsh experiences of LGBT and sexual and gender nonconforming people, and LGBT youth in the criminal legal system, http://www.nytimes.com, Feb. 17.
"I'm not religious. I don't especially care if other people are. But let's be clear: anti-discrimination measures are not my attempt to force an atheist-liberal-homosexual agenda on an unsuspecting populace. It's an attempt to create and maintain a pluralistic society, where everyone has equal dignity and rights under the law. Believe it or not, those who fight for equality are fighting for YOU, dear religious people of the world. By ensuring the rights of the most persecuted, we ensure that YOU cannot be fired for being a particular race or religion or sex or whatever else. Because that's how we do things here. We brook no foolishness. Are you a nice person? Are you doing your job? Are you peacefully living your life? Great. Because that's all that's supposed to matter."
– Mindy Townsend, in her column titled "Will Kansas Be Known as a Haven for Anti-LGBT Discrimination?," about the backlash by "family values czars" in Kansas who are pushing a bill that would stop progress toward LGBT equality, http://www.news.change.org, Feb. 18.
