Comments on: Wolfson’s comments on Md. marriage campaign ‘a big fat lie’

By: Gee – Now You Have Some Inkling of an Idea of What it Has Been Like For Trans People, Working Capitol Hill When We Knew that HRC Was Lobbying Against Us « ENDABlog 2.0

Fri, 16 Nov 2012 01:09:12 +0000

[...] from Queer Channel Media: Freedom to Marry President Evan Wolfson’s post-Election Day comments about the role his [...]

By: Jason J.

Jason J. — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 18:13:21 +0000

Great ending point (Dee November 14, 2012 at 10:49 pm)

By: Larry Esser

Larry Esser — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 17:32:35 +0000

When the MD marriage rights law was first put to referendum, it really seemed, even to some of us who have been activists for a long time in the state, that Evan Wolfson was right to see great odds against us winning a popular vote here. We’ve seen firsthand the desperate and hateful determination of those against us to do everything possible to deny us our rights in the courts, legislature, and ballot box. None of us should claim now that “we knew it all along” that we would win…we didn’t. The real credit belongs to those who knew this but kept right on going anyway. People like Josh Levin and many others who took up the battle and never wavered, they will always be our heroes.

By: Dee

Dee — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 03:49:31 +0000

Two things are clear: One, FTM and Evan are heroes. We would not have won in 3 of the 4 states without them, simple as that. Two, they made a bad call on Maryland.

What is unclear is why the initial call not to get involved in MD persisted even after the polling improved by the summer. By the summer and thereafter, MD’s polling was very encouraging, and was certainly better than MN’s polling. At that point, it would have made sense to rethink FTM’s initial decision. Moreover, even after they did get involved, they tried to stay away from the main PAC and instead help the NAACP’s PAC. This suggests that this is all a result of some sort of turf war or tiff between HRC and FTM. It would be good to just get it out and stop with the endless spinning on both sides. But whether they decide to be forthcoming or not, whatever caused this rift in MD should never happen again. We easily could have lost MD as the result of this. Don’t repeat it.

By: Steve Gorman

Steve Gorman — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 22:52:18 +0000

I echo Peter Rosenstein’s comment regarding where credit for victory lies. That said, I am friendly with one of FTM’s board members who is an outstanding ally to our community and I expressed my dismay at Wolfson’s insular attitude. I reminded the FTM board member of the Iowa win where the self declared LGBT leaders initially scoffed at the news of Iowa’s readiness for equality. We all know that It took an ally to kick that door down. After the Maryland win, my self congratulatory message to the board member was to tell Wolfson that regardless of the odds, “never not do that ever again or his own job will end”. We rise together or we fall together.

By: Peter Rosenstein

Peter Rosenstein — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 16:30:05 +0000

It was very clear that Evan Wolfson and Freedom to Marry didn’t think that Maryland was worth investing in until late in the game. I blogged about it as did many others as they sat on the sidelines. I appreciate that as things looked up for Maryland they joined the fight. But this is not one they can take credit for. But the reality is that these fights belong to the entire community not any one organization and Maryland was clearly a community win.