Original subtitles

(upbeat music)

- Hey there, New York City.

It’s Tuesday’s forecast, and it’s gonna be cold,

winds will make it feel \heven colder than that,

\hso definitely bundle up if you can’t just stay inside.

- Breaking news from the \h\h\h\h\hSupreme Court,

the justices have agreed to \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\htake up

whether states can ban same-sex marriage.

- A new year, a new decision, \h\h\hthe Supreme Court says

it will take up the issue \h\hof same-sex marriage.

\h\h- [Reporter] It will be a civil rights issue.

- Well, it’s a historic day here

because the Supreme Court has \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hnever agreed

to decide this question \hand now it’s taking--

- [Reporter] To take up the issue of same-sex marriage,

the justices will hear the \h\h\h\h\h\hcases in April

and they will ponder whether \hthe Constitution requires

states to issue marriage \h\h\h\h\h\h\hlicenses.

- This is another historic \h\h\h\h\h\h\hannouncement

by the US Supreme Court and a major sign of hope

for countless same-sex couples.

- [Reporter] And we have to wait

until they actually issue their decision.

\h\h- [Reporter] And no matter what they decide,

they will make history.

\h\h\h- The Supreme Court took up those cases today,

the arguments are gonna happen \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hin April,

\hand then, probably in June, the Supreme Court

\h\hof the United States will issue what very well might be

the biggest gay rights ruling \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hever.

- [Crowd] We want freedom!

We want freedom!

We want freedom!

(bell tolling)

- Good afternoon, Freedom \hto Marry, this is Mark.

\h\h\h- Okay, the Supreme Court has said this is it.

We have got what, four or five \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hmonths,

to now to continue driving this narrative

that America is ready and it’s \htime, as we have been doing.

We really have to exhibit that \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hurgency

as we’re sending out the \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hmessage.

\h\h\hWinning isn’t won and it’s not a done deal until it’s done.

The case before the Supreme Court is the marriage case,

it’s the case seeking the freedom to marry,

\h\h\h\h\hthe culmination of everything we’ve fought for.

- My biggest fear is that we \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hlose.

This is not just a normal court case.

This is a case about the \hdignity of millions of

Americans.

- We stand now before the \h\h\h\h\hSupreme Court,

having gone from zero states where gay people can marry,

little more than a decade ago,

to now 37 Freedom to Marry \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hstates.

But we’re not done until we have

won the freedom to marry

with no state and no family \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hleft out.

And the job is not done and \h\h\h\h\h\h\hit’s urgent,

and it makes a difference,

it makes a difference whether \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hit happens

\hthis year or next year or five years from now.

It makes a real difference to \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hreal people.

\h- [Thalia] Evan has been the leader of this entire movement

\h\h\h\h\hand he has gathered together political operatives,

message people, new media,

all looking towards the same \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hvision

and moving in the same \h\h\h\h\h\hdirection.

- Evan has driven this thing.

From the mid-’80s, he has \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hdriven it

all the way through to today.

- You know, one way or another,

I have been working on this

for the most part of most \hdays for 32 years now.

- Are you filming?

- [Michael] Yes.

Don’t just curious me when you are filming.

That is not fair.

- [Michael] Why?

\h- Mike, I’ll make you turn it off, I mean it.

- [Michael] Okay.

I mean, one of the things you do is activism for gay rights,

why do you do that?

- Because it bothers me.

Injustice, pompous as it sounds, bothers me.

I think it’s unfair that people should not be able to live

their lives and make their \hown choices in a country

that is built on respect \hfor individual choice

and diverse exercise of freedom.

- Evan is the extremely unique \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hguy

\h\hwho, as he realized he was gay, he was like,

I am gay and I am being treated unequally.

What’s the matter with the rest of the world?

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h- So, this is my neighborhood, this is my street,

we used to walk up here \hto elementary school.

We felt part of a community, \h\h\h\hsupported and loved.

So, very, very lucky.

Very lucky.

I grew up in a loving family.

\h\h\h\h\h\hWe were certainly Jewish-identified and I had a

Bar Mitzvah

and we went to Jewish summer \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hcamp,

\h\h\h\h\hbut we weren’t an intensely religious family.

But the values were there.

Bring your part.

Mend the world.

Care for others.

Be a mensch.

- [Joan] Evan was always very \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hbright.

\h\h\hYou know, he would try to help out and all of that.

You were an A-okay kid.

(laughing)

- I always used to say some day

he was gonna be President \h\hof the United States.

\h\h- He was supposed to be the first Jewish President.

In fact I remember when \hhe was four years old,

\hmaybe four years old, and he was reading The New York Times.

\h\hNot only was he reading it, he was understanding it.

- And when he went away to the \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hPeace Corps

\hand then came home was when he announced that he was gay.

And then we thought, I am not \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hsure

he is gonna be President,

but he is gonna be something.

- It was clear to me that he was gonna be a winner,

and he is so far.

- So far!

Knock on wood. \h\h- So far.

No, it’s true.

(light hopeful music)

\h\h\h\h\h- We now have oral arguments set for April 28th

\hand we’re gonna be doing a national television ad.

It’s not a done deal.

The Supreme Court does not just look at the Constitution

and give an answer.

You have to earn your way to being considered worthy

of equal protection.

\h\h\h- And so our teams are preparing the briefs

so the court hears from all of \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hAmerica,

\h\h\h\h\h\hbusiness leaders, clergy, civil rights leaders,

to give them the arguments and \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hthe comfort

of knowing that the country is \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hready.

- [Man] I think that most of \hthose companies will join.

\h\h- And we’re trying to build on the sports teams

that have signed on, you know, the Tampa Bay Rays

are super-enthusiastic and, you know.

- The question isn’t just, will we win?

\hIt’s, how did we get to this moment at all?

(ticking)

- In a national telephone \hpoll earlier this year,

NBC news found that a narrow \h\h\h\h\h\h\hmajority felt

that homosexuality was immoral.

- We were perverts and outcasts.

We were dangerous, we were \h\h\h\h\h\h\hthreatening.

That was the dominant narrative

of LGBT people in this society.

- Most Americans are repelled

by the mere notion of \h\h\hhomosexuality.

The average homosexual \his not interested in

nor capable of a lasting \h\h\h\h\h\hrelationship

like that of a heterosexual \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hmarriage.

- Gays were the dregs, the low \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hof the low,

just people to be shat upon,

the people to be abused by the \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hpolice,

people to be arrested.

There were no legal protections in place,

\hand it was so stigmatized, it was a bad way back then.

- [Woman] What do you want the police to do?

- We want them off our backs.

We want them to stop harassing \hus, stop pushing us around.

- The first wave of marriage \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hlitigation

was in the immediate aftermath \hof the Stonewall rebellion.

- [Men] He got away with murder!

He got away with murder!

- [Man] We want the freedoms,

the freedoms to love that belong

to the heterosexuals in this \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hcountry,

and we’re going to have them.

\h\h\h- In that movement were several major cases

seeking the freedom to marry.

All of those cases were \hrubber-stamped away.

\h\h\h\h- [Man] Officials turned them down flat, stating bluntly,

\h\h\h"A marital relationship cannot exist between faggots."

- They were laughed out of \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hcourt.

People had no idea what being gay was back then,

and what they knew was terrible.

(ticking)

- In 1983, while at Harvard Law School,

\h\h\h\hI wrote my thesis on gay people and the freedom to marry.

\hI argued that, by claiming this vocabulary of marriage,

\h\h\hwe would be achieving an engine of transformation

\h\h\h\hthat would help change non-gay people’s understanding

of who gay people are.

- And when you read that thesis,

\hit’s amazing how the vision and the roadmap

of how we get to where we’re today has really come to be.

But back in 1983, most people \hthought it was ridiculous.

- When Evan wrote his paper,

trying to win marriage equality was not even on the radar

of the gay movement.

\h\hHe went through years of being really ridiculed

\hby many people who would literally laugh in his face

and just say, "That’s \h\h\h\h\hridiculous.

"It’s never gonna happen."

- When I wrote my paper back in 1983,

there were very, very few gay organizations.

They were just beginning \hto make some progress,

and here comes AIDS.

The lifestyle of some male \h\h\h\h\h\h\hhomosexuals

has triggered an epidemic.

- Tens and tens of thousands \h\h\hof people were dying.

- And AIDS shattered the silence

about gay people’s lives, and that transformed our movement

from being a movement in which

what we were really asking \hfor was to be let alone,

\h\hdon’t arrest us, don’t harass us, don’t attack us,

to a movement about being let \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hin.

(ticking)

- [Man] Three gay couples, \htwo men and four women,

sued Hawaii’s Department of \h\h\h\h\h\h\hPublic Health

to overturn the ban on same-sex marriages.

- It was in 1990 that Genora asked me to marry her and--

- They reached out to me and \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hsaid,

"Would you be interested \h\hin doing this case?"

\h\h\h\hAnd some believed that the time wasn’t right

\h\h\h\hand some believed not the right thing to fight for.

- I mean, people were very \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hafraid

\h\h\hand thought that we would generate a backlash.

\hWell, that it was hopeless, there is no way we would win.

- The case is about ending \h\h\h\h\h\hdiscrimination

to citizens of this nation

\h\h\h\hand we believe we will prevail in the State of Hawaii.

Thank you.

- Dan and I really bonded and we began to really strategize

about how to win this case in \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hHawaii

and how to leverage this case \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hin Hawaii

for the national implications \h\h\h\h\hthat it would have.

- He had been thinking about \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hthis

and writing about this for a \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hdecade,

\hso, he was ready to help make a really powerful case

to the Hawaii Supreme Court and they won.

They won.

\h\h- [Man] A Honolulu judge told Hawaii state government

it cannot deny a marriage \hlicense to gay couples.

- Today the court in Hawaii \hhas struck a strong blow

\hagainst discrimination in marriage based on sex.

- The win in Hawaii at the \h\h\h\h\h\h\hcourt level

was Evan’s vision completely \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hvindicated.

- So, that’s when the marriage \h\hmovement really got going.

\h\h\hPeople saw that this wasn’t simply a pipe dream.

But gay people never married in Hawaii.

The political system shut it \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hdown.

\h\h- Are we so wise today that we’re ready to reject

5,000 years od recorded history?

I don’t think so.

\h\h\h\h- Congress said oh my God, this really could happen.

\h\hSo they said, federal government doesn’t respect

these marriages, and it moved \hthrough Congress so quickly.

\h\h\h\h\h- [Man] President Clinton has signed the bill

that bans the federal government

from recognizing same-sex \h\h\h\h\h\h\hmarriages.

- [Woman] The so-called Defense of Marriage Act

\h\hdefines marriage as union between one man and one woman.

- Even though we experienced a \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hbacklash,

\hEvan understood the power of it and he never wavered.

- Back then people called him

the Paul Revere of gay marriage.

You know, marriage is coming,

marriage is coming, marriage is coming.

- Marriage has a host of legal and economic

\h\h\has well as social benefits and protections attached with it

that lesbians and gay men are automatically denied every day

because we cannot get married.

- And I think he felt like his \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\htrue gift

was to be The Marriage Guy.

- Why is it so important \h\hto attain, for gays,

the institution of marriage?

\h- Marriage, we have long recognized in this country,

\his a basic human right and a very important personal choice

and gay people want to make \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hthat choice

with the person they love

for the same mix of reasons \h\hthat non-gay people do.

I knew that this wasn’t just a \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hcase

and it wasn’t just about Hawaii.

It was a national conversation

and became a global conversation

that was gonna change \h\h\h\h\heverything.

(light hopeful music)

- [Thalia] I guess you could say

\hif Evan is the godfather of the marriage movement,

Mary Bonauto is the godmother.

- Mary was hired by GLAD

as our first civil rights \h\h\h\h\hproject lawyer.

\h\h- I started because Massachusetts had become

the second state to enact

a non-discrimination law, \h\h\h\h\hNovember 1989.

- One of the first things that came across her desk

\has a GLAD attorney was a request to get married.

\h\hI felt awful telling people that I would not represent them

in marriage litigation and, of \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hcourse,

every time I got one of those \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hcalls,

it was anxiety-producing.

I took it very seriously.

I just didn’t think it was the \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hright time.

\h\h\h\h\hHawaii was a wake-up call to people like me to say,

wow, the issue is on the table.

We have to go for it.

\hI came out in college and it wasn’t the easiest coming out.

\h\hIt became clear to me right away that there was,

\h\h\h\hthere was massive discrimination out there.

\h\hAnd it was the one thing that finally made sense to me

and really made me happy,

\hbut other people were really unhappy about it.

My parents said, "When \hsomething is wrong,

"you should do something to \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hchange it."

\h- We really connected on that first day we met

at this first round-table \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hgathering

of the Small Movement \h\h\h\h\hLeadership.

And she shared a similar view.

- I definitely felt like I was \h\h\hin the big leagues here.

I felt a little intimidated,

so his warmth meant the world \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hto me

and we discovered in short order

\hthat we both thought this was a very important issue.

- I mean, she has dedicated her life

to thinking about these issues,

briefing these issues, arguing these issues.

- [Gary] I think that’s a pretty strong argument, actually.

- Hopefully, that gives you a \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hheads-up

\h\h\h\has this proceeds to scheduling for oral argument

and we’ll go from there.

Thank you.

- Okay.

(bright music)

- The United States Supreme \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hCourt

\h\h\h\his gonna settle the gay marriage issue once and for all.

- Yeah, the justices will hear \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hfour cases

on the issue this spring,

\h\hincluding one brought by a lesbian couple from Hazel Park.

\h\h\h- So in this case, we’re actually arguing two questions.

Number one, is it okay for \hstates to ban gays from

marrying?

\h\h\h\hAnd number two, is it okay for states to not respect

legal marriages performed in \h\h\h\h\h\h\hother states?

\h- I represent April DeBoer and Jayne Rowse from Michigan

who are seeking to marry under \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hstate law.

\hWe hope to settle this issue once and for all,

so that in Michigan and the \h\h\h\h\h\hentire nation,

same-sex couples may marry.

- [Jayne] Everything we have \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hdone

or are doing is for our kids.

- Hi, Mommy. \h\h\h- Hi.

- Mommy!

- Did you have breakfast?

- Yes.

- Oh.

- I had toast.

- Toast?

(laughing)

- Between the two of us,

Jayne and I have four adopted \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hchildren

and we currently have one \h\h\h\h\h\hfoster child

that will be adopted soon.

Well, legally, Jacob and \hNolan belong to Jayne,

and Ryanne and Rylee belong to \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hme.

We’re a family together, \hbut strictly on paper,

that’s the way it goes.

- [Jayne] The law in Michigan is, married couples can adopt,

single people can adopt, but two unmarried people

cannot jointly adopt.

Which is what, obviously, we’re considered

\h\hbecause gay marriage is not recognized in Michigan.

(laughing)

- April is a NICU nurse, Jayne \his an emergency-room nurse.

They took in children who had either been abandoned

or you know, surrendered at \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hbirth.

- Can you say hi?

Say, hi.

- Hi.

- Say, I am Rylee.

I am Rylee.

Can you blow a kiss?

- Muah.

- There you go.

\h\h\h\hShe came into our life through foster care.

She has asthma, chronic ear \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hinfections.

She is going back for surgery for her ears.

- They brought Jacob home.

Basically, the hospital let \hthem take him home to die.

No one expected for him to live.

\h\hHe was drug-addicted, he weighed 1.9 pounds at birth.

They just nursed him back to \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hhealth.

He is thriving, they are all \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hthriving.

\h\hThey are energetic, talkative, healthy kids.

\h\hBy the time they go to bed, I’m pretty exhausted.

- Mama. - What?

- I want more milk.

- You want more milk? \h\h\h\h\h\h\h- Yeah.

- Okay, can I finish talking?

\h\h\h\h\h- Yeah. - Okay, thank you.

- So they’re asked by the State of Michigan,

\hcan you take this baby in and take care of this baby?

But then when they want to adopt these children as a

couple,

they’re prohibited from doing \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hso.

- Something happens to me

\h\h\hand my daughters get moved to a different house

\h\hand there is no legal action that can be taken.

\h\hThink about those kids that could, in an instant,

lose everything that they know.

- I couldn’t do nothing.

I was embarrassed to be a lawyer

in a state that treated people \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hthis badly.

\h- Are you so different or dangerous or deficient

in some way, so other still, \hthat you can’t participate

in something that is really \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hconsidered

a fundamental right for all \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hAmericans?

- I hope we will win this case, but yeah nothing is certain.

- We weren’t gonna stand still

and let our children be \hdiscriminated against.

We were gonna do what we promised them to do

\h\h\h\h\hand we were gonna protect them no matter what.

\h\h- [Reporter] This is eyewitness news Up Close.

\h\h\h- Legalizing same-sex marriage, again a hot topic

\hboth in our area and all around the country.

- We’re all Americans, we’re all entitled to basic rights

and protections and we don’t \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hput that

up to an up or down vote.

- But all of us agree on that \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hissue,

\h\h\h\hwe agree that we have civil rights, the question is,

\hwhether there is a civil right to redefine marriage,

and we disagree on that.

- Well, the people have voted,

the people elected legislators.

They elected legislators to do \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\htheir job.

If the legislators don’t do \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\htheir job.

- In this country, we’re \h\h\h\h\hgenerally free

to live as we choose.

Gays and lesbians can live \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\htogether.

They have general freedom to \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hlive

as all of us have freedom to \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hlive.

\h\h\hThey don’t have the right to redefine marriage

for the rest of society.

- I believe, as so many \hsocial scientists do,

that if you want to take care \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hof children,

if you want to have a nation

that’s strong in the future,

you have got to have strong families in our communities

\h\h\hwho raise up children who have the kind of cultural values

\h\h\h\hthat will make them good citizens in the future.

\hAnd unless you have a strong influence from a mom and a dad,

\h\hthey are not gonna grow up into the kind of citizens

that it takes to be a strong \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hcountry.

- Gay people don’t want to \h\h\h\h\h\h\hmarry people

of the opposite gender.

And the reason for that is because they are gay!

\hSo they want to be with the person that they love

and they are gonna continue to \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hdo that.

\h\hThey are just gonna do it without the same rights,

securities and protections \h\h\h\h\has other people.

\h- The church and many other faiths don’t teach

that we’re to hate or demean \hpeople for their choices,

but we do teach that there,

\h\h\hthat there are differences between orientation and actions.

\h\hAnd some people don’t want to hear this anymore,

it makes them very upset,

but this is the traditional \hteaching of Christianity.

\hThat if we feel that we’re oriented towards the same sex

that we’re called not to act on that.

And that is a big cross for \h\h\h\h\h\h\hmany to bear.

But that’s what our faith is.

\h\h\h\hIt’s not supposed to be easy, it’s not even necessarily

supposed to feel as if it’s humanly possible.

\h- The amicus briefs are due in a week and a half,

oral arguments are likely to be at the end of April.

- Are you pricing out the ad that we want to do to again,

sort of meta-frame the-- \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h- Yeah.

Washington Post ad would cost,

between 60 and slightly over \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h100.

When I jumped into the marriage fight,

I certainly didn’t know it was \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hgonna be

the next 14 years of my life.

You know, I had done political \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hactivism

\hbut marriage just felt so viscerally important.

\h\h\hI grew up in Kansas City, Missouri in a liberal household.

I’d play in the baseball league

and the basketball league there.

It was a good place to be.

\h\h- He wouldn’t be wearing a suit like that except for.

Yeah, this is right.

\h\h- Well, my mom passed away about six years ago.

Father and I are still tight.

We are die-hard Kansas City \h\h\h\h\h\h\hRoyals fans.

Are you kidding me?

Gone.

- Oh!

God damn it.

- Wow.

There is no question I’m the \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\honly gay guy

walking around Chelsea

\hlistening to the Kansas City Royals on my iPhone.

(men cheering)

All right.

\h\hSo, this weekend was my 30-year high school reunion

and I was invited to give \hthe alumni-day speech.

Hi.

- Ready for sound-check? \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h- Sure.

\h\h\hOoh, the auditorium looks a lot better than the old days.

\h\hOne of the administrators told me about her gay brother

who got married in Seattle.

\h\h\h- You being here is not just important for us

to learn as a school and \hto welcome back alumni

but you made my family.

- Oh.

Well, thank you, it’s--

- No, thank you.

- Yeah, awesome!

Oh!

It was a huge change from 30 \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hyears ago.

- Please welcome Marc Solomon to the stage.

(audience applauding)

- I think all alumni will \hsay they can’t believe

\h\h\hit’s been 30 years since they’ve been here.

\h\h\h\hWhat I remember is sitting in these same seats

\h\hwith a secret that I felt like I couldn’t tell anybody.

I first thought I was gay

around the time I was 12 years \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hold.

\h\h\hI remember getting ready for my Bar Mitzvah

and I started to go to Bar \h\h\h\h\hMitzvah parties

but I couldn’t tell anybody.

I didn’t know anybody who was \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hgay.

Gay was bad.

In college, even though my \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hparents

were activist liberal democrats,

I decided that I liked Ronald \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hReagan,

thinking that if I were \h\ha tough Republican,

sort of masculine,

\h\hthen that would make sure that people don’t think of me

as someone who is effeminate or gay.

I dated women, I tried \h\h\hpsychoanalysis.

I really said to myself,

\hI am gonna try to figure out a way to be straight.

I tried hard and I was as gay at 30 as I was at 12,

and, but I tried.

I mean, I really tried.

- He sent us a letter, I opened it up,

and I just freaked out \hand I called my wife

and she came home and then we \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hboth cried.

We never thought that he was \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hgay.

\h\h\h\h- You know, my mom was I think she was saddest

that I hadn’t felt comfortable \h\h\h\h\htelling them before.

You know, and then my father was

\h\h\h\ha little bit Homer Simpson-esque, he was like,

so, tell me, like, when you see a woman’s body,

it really just doesn’t \hdo anything for you?

He was like, even this \hbeautiful hot model

\h\h\hwith beautiful breasts, you just don’t feel anything?

And I was like, no.

And he was like, I just \hcan’t understand that!

- He can still throw a \hfootball, you know,

he can throw a football 60 \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hyards,

whatever in the hell that means.

- My question is, what would \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hyou tell

your 16-year-old high school \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hself?

- I guess what I would say is, \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hit’s okay.

It’s okay to be, you know, that you are who you are.

\h\h\hWhen you’re ready to come out, you know, do it,

but it’s okay to be who you are.

Well, anyhow, thank you guys so much and--

(audience applauding)

- Yeah, I am very proud of Marc.

He is freeing his people.

Just like, just like Moses.

\h\h\h\h\h\h- [Woman] You know, we’re trying really to identify

business leaders and clearly everybody agreed by getting

\h\h\hTampa Bay to be one of those voices would be great.

\h- They really want to be seen as the leaders on this

\h\hso I can, do you want me to, do you want me to,

\htee that up with the president of the team?

\h\h\h\hThe more pro-sports teams, the more Republicans,

\h\h\h\h\hthe more businesses we can show, the better off we are.

We want to show the Supreme Court that America is ready

for a national ruling.

\h\h- While our litigators are doing their really deep

and great work, we’re working \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hto make sure

that everything that can be \hdone outside the courtroom

will be done.

- You know, I’ll touch base in a couple days

and let you know what, let you know how we’re doing.

(ticking)

I got involved with a small grassroots group

\hcalled the Massachusetts Freedom To Marry coalition.

It was right around the time that seven couples

went to file for marriage licenses in Massachusetts.

\h\hThey were all denied, and Mary Bonauto, on their behalf,

filed a lawsuit for marriage.

- [Crowd] Let the people vote!

- [Reporter] Massachusetts \h\h\h\hbecame the latest

\h\h\hbattleground state over the right to marry,

\hafter seven same-sex couples sued the state.

- Now, finally, these couples.

I argued the Goodridge case \hand I knew when I stood up

in court I needed to remind \h\hthem that we were here

seeking marriage and that \h\h\h\h\hmarriage itself

is a commitment and a \h\h\h\h\hprotection.

\hAnd then in November 2003, I am on my way to a hearing

\hin Connecticut and I get the call from Evan.

(audience applauding) (audience cheering)

- Today, in Massachusetts,

for the first time in US \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hhistory,

the civil marriage laws of a \hstate do not exclude gays.

\h\h\h- [Reporter] Just after midnight thousands celebrated

what was once just a dream.

\h- May 17th, 2004 was the most remarkable day ever.

\hIt was the first day of marriages in the country.

It was just unbelievable.

- That was proof to bolster

what Evan had been saying for a long time,

that, yeah, this could happen,

we could do it.

(audience cheering)

- We also had the whole world \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hagainst us.

- Repent, repent!

\h\h\h- There were people from all over the country

\h\h\hcarrying crosses in front of the State House,

calling us evil.

A lot of people thought \h\h\h\h\hsomething bad

was really gonna happen.

- [Crowd] Let the people vote!

Let the people vote!

- What the court is about to do

is unleash chaos on our society.

- And then what I remember the \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hmost

is all of these statements coming in from everywhere

ripping this decision to shreds.

- Marriage is an institution \hbetween a man and a woman.

\h- Our nation must defend the sanctity of marriage.

(audience applauding)

- It really felt like it was life or death.

- And the whole strategy of our opponents

was to shut down every other \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hstate.

- The big story of the day, \hthe New York State Senate

rejects legalizing same-sex \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hmarriage.

\h\h\h- [Reporter] By a 20 to 14 margin, the state senate rejects

\ha bill to legalize gay marriage in New Jersey.

- [Reporter] A new poll finds \hopposition to gay marriage

is actually growing in the \h\h\h\h\h\hUnited States.

- [Reporter] 26 states have \hconstitutional amendments

banning same-sex marriage.

- [Reporter] In California, \h\h\hProposition 8 amends

the state constitution to \hban same-sex marriage.

- The battle has been won.

(audience applauding)

- It was totally devastating.

- That was the hardest \hmoment of my career,

because it felt like we turned \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\ha corner

and it ended up being a U-turn.

- So it was at that point,

we said what we’re doing ain’t \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hworking,

and we’ve got to figure out how,

in terms of reaching people,

and, number two, we don’t have

a national, a real national \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hcampaign.

\h\h\hFreedom To Marry was still a small organization,

it was not raising money on its own.

It was a cajoler, a pusher, a \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hshover,

but not a real staffed campaign.

- So the funders convened it

and it was held at Gill \h\h\h\h\h\hFoundation.

And idea of it was, can we get \heverybody on the same page?

- Gay organizations are vastly \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\houtspent

by the opponents of equality.

\h\hAnd for us to really achieve our equal rights,

we’re gonna have to increase \h\h\h\h\h\h\hwhat we give,

\h\h\h\hwe’re gonna have to be smarter, and, more importantly,

\hwe have to get the rest of the gay community involved.

\h\h\h- And part of the understanding, implicit,

was that if we were able to \h\h\h\h\h\h\hcome together

\hand figure out a way forward that the funders would back us.

- We needed a single strategy.

\h\h\h\hWe needed a leader, we needed a level of coordination

that we didn’t have before.

- Evan stepped up and did it.

\h\h\h- Evan made the decision we needed to build internally,

\h\h\ha political operation to evaluate which states to go to,

to put together campaigns in \h\h\h\h\h\h\hthose states,

to raise and invest the money

\hthat would enable us to win in these places.

\h\h\h\hThat’s when we really transformed into this campaign

center.

\h- No one organization, no one battle was gonna be able

to fulfill this strategy.

We needed this to become \h\h\ha massive movement

in which everyone was doing \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\htheir part

but the movement is following a strategy.

\h\hWe’re going to win the freedom to marry nationwide

by getting to the Supreme Court with a strong case,

having built a critical mass of states

and a critical mass of support

\h\hto set the stage for the Supreme Court to do its part

\hand bring the country to national resolution.

- So we funded endless amounts \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hof research

\hto really kind of dismantle the foundations of homophobia.

- We did a lot of research.

Focus groups, polling, and would ask straight people,

what does marriage mean to you?

Well, love, commitment, family.

And if you asked them the same \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hthing,

Why do same-sex couples \hwant to get married?

\h\h\h\hWell, it’s because of insurance benefits and rights.

So there was this huge \h\h\h\h\hdisconnect.

\h- At its most simple, the case that needed to be made

was we want to marry for the same reasons you do, period.

Who are gay people in reality \hand how do we really live?

And how are we like you?

- [Thalia] It was the stories, \h\h\hit was showing couples,

it was showing their love and \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hshowing

their commitment to the world.

- We looked at what is the most effective way

of getting people to hear these words.

How do you take a political \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hbattle

that’s happening over there

to something that prompts people

\hto talk in their kitchen table in more human terms.

- And all of sudden, there we were, really talking to people

in a way that opened their \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hhearts

and really changed their minds.

- [Man] For the first time,

\h\h\ha majority of people support same-sex marriage.

We looked at the map like a \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hchessboard

and every year we said we’re \hgonna choose three states

to try to win this year.

- [Man] The Washington D.C. \h\h\h\h\h\h\hCity Council

overwhelmingly passed a bill \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hTuesday

to approve same-sex unions.

- [Man] Ayes 33, Nays 29.

- Just in the last eight months,

six states have recognized gay \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hmarriages

and politicians who once \h\h\h\h\h\h\hopposed it

are now supporting marriage \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hequality.

- We have finally won the freedom to marry.

(audience applauding) (audience cheering)

- [Woman] Maine has become the \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hfirst state

\h\hto legalize same-sex marriage by popular vote.

- We are standing here as equal citizens!

(audience applauding) (audience cheering)

- Now we had won in the courts,

in the legislature and at the \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hballot.

- Would you call this a social \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hrevolution

or a cultural shift?

- Both.

\h- [Woman] I think that the same-sex marriage advocates

\h\hhave done a credible job of getting out there

and making their case.

- [Man] And the other side hasn’t been able

to do anything but thump the \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hBible.

\h\h- I think same-sex couples should be able to get married.

- DOMA is gone.

\h- [Thalia] And I thought, wow, it’s really happening.

It’s really happening.

(bell tolling)

- What changed?

Why are we here?

\h\hWhy are we now winning the freedom to marry in the courts

and why are we so hopeful

as we head into the Supreme \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hCourt now?

It’s not the Constitution \h\h\h\hthat has changed.

What’s changed is our knowledge

of what it means to be lesbian \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hor gay.

There is no marriage without \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hengagement.

(audience applauding)

\h\h- A big part of Evan’s genius and what he realized

is that, in order to win in the courts,

\h\h\hwe also have to win in the court of public opinion.

The two things go hand-in-hand.

- Often the court needs to have a sense

that not only is the language \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hthere,

but that the country is there.

- On Friday all of the amicus briefs were due

into the court, you know, \hthe coverage was great.

\h\hYou know, Republicans, enough new names to make--

- Yeah, well, thanks to you.

- We’re just a little over a \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hmonth away

from being in front of the US Supreme Court,

\hand the biggest state to not have marriage is Texas.

\h\h\hWe’ve budgeted for another TV spot in Texas

\hand we need to decide if we want to do that or not.

- In a place like Texas, as opposed to in the national,

sort of round-up.

\hDo you want to try to also say why, you know?

- Why Texas is ready?

- The argument in Texas is these people are still not

there.

You know, it’s unfair.

Why should Texans be left \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hbehind?

- Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

\h- [Man] Good morning and welcome, everyone.

On behalf of Equality Texas,

I want to thank you all for \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hjoining us

for today’s Family Advocacy day.

- They say everything is bigger in Texas.

I think that includes the BS from your politicians,

\hwhich is bigger here in Texas than anywhere else.

\h\h\hAnd so some of the folks across the street,

\h\h\hthey might demagogue the heck out of this stuff.

\h\hBut know that because of the work you are doing,

the stories you’re sharing, you know,

we are gonna win here in Texas.

(audience applauding)

- What’s his name? \h\h\h\h\h- Devon.

- That is a cute little brother.

\h\h\hAre you intimidated by doing the lobbying work, or?

- No. - No?

- I have never lobbied with my child, though.

- Yeah?

- And I am very excited \hto show her the ropes.

- Right.

- Whoa, do you guys see that?

- [Girl] What?

- How cool it looks down there?

Representative Oliveira.

Oh, Oliveira.

Hello, I’m Marty Beyer.

- Sophia, very good to meet you.

- Hi, my name is Jen, nice to \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hmeet you.

\h\h\hMeet my daughter Ovito who is gonna stay right here.

\h- I have seen so many lawmakers meet with kids

\h\h\h\hwith same-sex parents who’ll be like, you know what,

after I met those kids, I could only think of my own kids,

\h\hand how could I treat those kids any differently

than I want my kids to be \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\htreated.

- You know, in particular, \h\hsince having children,

it’s a real feeling of \h\h\h\hvulnerability

\hthat we were just able to have our legal status

reflect our actual life status.

- We really made the discussion be a two-way discussion

in which part of what we were \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hsaying was,

what are your values?

And how do all of these \h\h\h\hnegative ideas

and stereotypes about gay \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hpeople,

how do they actually fit into \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hyour values?

- [Thalia] If you believe \h\h\hin the golden rule,

if you believe in freedom,

how can you deny something \h\has basic as marriage?

- Hey, Alyse, I am Marty Beyer, nice to meet you.

- We wanted to convince \h\h\h\hstraight people

that in order for them to be \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hgood people

they needed to back gay people’s right to marry.

- Go team.

And hugs.

\h\h- So what’s happening today is pretty dramatic.

On the inside of the building, \h\h\h\hwe have families go in

\h\h\h\hand share their real stories with their lawmakers.

Outside you had our opponents

push back against our families.

\h\h\h- The Lieutenant Governor of our great state, Dan Patrick.

(audience applauding) (audience cheering)

- Good afternoon, everyone.

Thank you for coming out

to stand for two important \h\h\h\h\h\hissues today.

First and foremost is the issue of standing

for traditional marriage.

It’s not about being \h\h\h\hanti-anyone.

It’s about being for marriage \hbetween a man and a woman.

- Yeah.

- And it is not the federal \h\h\hgovernment’s business

\hto tell Texans what to do in Texas on any issue.

Thank y’all for being here and \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hGod bless.

\h\h- There are 13 states that don’t have marriage.

None of ’em is as powerful or as important as Texas.

\h\hTexas has always had this independent streak.

Nobody, you know, don’t mess \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hwith Texas.

\h- What Texas does, the rest of the country does.

\h\h\hLet’s make sure that Texas does the right thing.

(audience applauding) (audience cheering)

- I’m a judge, and normally judges don’t speak in public

about issues like this.

But nothing in the Constitution of the United States,

\h\h\h\h\hnothing in the laws or precedents of the federal courts

\h\h\hgive federal courts any authority over domestic policy

on family and marriage in the State of Texas,

in the State of Alabama or \h\h\h\h\h\hanywhere else.

- [Man] Enough is enough, man.

Our nation is gonna waste.

They need deliverance, man.

They need more Jesus!

- I pay taxes just like \h\h\h\heverybody else,

we should all get along and say,

you know what, you live your \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hlife.

I don’t need people in my \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hbedroom.

I don’t want to be in your \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hbedroom.

- About the children! \h\h- I don’t wanna--

- It’s all about the children!

- What does it say, you want \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hequality,

that’s one man, one woman.

Look, pervert, pervert, pervert.

\h\h\h\hYou are trying to desensitize our children.

Sick pervert.

- [Woman] My son is gay.

- [Man] Then he got perverted.

- He--

- Let me ask you a simple \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hquestion.

- Yeah, ask me.

- When children are born, nothing is in their mind,

they have to learn everything, \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hright?

- I have two boys, one is gay.

- Learn.

- One is not gay, alright?

They were raised exactly the \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hsame way.

- Yeah, well, one of them must have got perverted somewhere.

- Believe me, nobody chooses \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hthat.

- I have been faithful to my \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hwife.

\h\hYou think I haven’t been tempted not to be?

I chose not to be!

You have a son with a problem.

- That has nothing to do with \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hit!

\h- Just because you love him doesn’t mean you say,

oh, son, you are an alcoholic.

I am gonna buy all the alcohol \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hyou want.

- Oh, you are comparing being \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hgay--

- You have to choose!

- To an alcoholic, you’re wrong.

- Yes, I am, because it’s a \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hchoice.

- You have to choose, promiscuity or purity.

- I have seven children, some \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hof them--

- Just take it easy.

There you go, honey.

\h\h- I just have never done anything like this

and it just, I am I’m just, I \hguess I’ve surrounded myself

with people that don’t think \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hthat way

and it’s just shocking to me.

\h\h- Ultimately, when it’s them preaching their hatred

and us sharing heartfelt stories about who we are

\h\hand our love for our families, we win the day.

- I mean, I’m a mom.

I’ve got.

- Oh, that’s the mom. \h- She was amazing.

And I told her afterwards,

"You know, you are gonna change the minds

"of a lot of people."

Here she is on the TV.

- You know, the goal is that \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hyou find

a really interesting person \hand then you can get them

to go talk to the press,

or share their story on \htheir Facebook page,

it’s that ripple effect. \h- Oh, I was so angry.

- [Man] Good evening, everyone, my name is Gerard Douglas

\hand I work with Equality Texas and Freedom To Marry

\h\h\h\hon the campaign to win marriage not only here in Texas

but across the United States of America.

- I’m here because I have \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hchildren

and grandchildren who fit into \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hLGBTQ.

So I’m doing everything I can to promote and secure

their freedom to marry whomever they love.

- They are lucky you are here,

so you should feel good about \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hthat,

really good about that.

- Thank you.

- What we’re doing is very \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hbrave.

But the reason why we do this \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hin groups

\h\h\his so that we know we’re not alone anymore.

Um, but now we’re gonna sort of turn the tables.

\h\h\h\h\hWe’re gonna kind of role-play what a conversation

with somebody might look like.

\h- Why is it important for you to be married in Texas?

- Because I am deeply in love \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hwith her

\h\hand I want to be able to express my love for her here.

- These conversations can be \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hscary

and it’s hard to get people \hto commit to having them

but you’ve got to show them the research.

\h\h\h75% of Americans will say they know a gay person.

\h\hOnly 35% of those people have ever had a conversation

with a gay person about \h\h\h\h\h\h\hmarriage.

But if they’re truly undecided

and they have a conversation \h\hwith somebody they know,

they then become 70% more likely

to support marriage equality.

\h\h- So the next thing that we’re gonna do is,

we are asking you all to commit yourselves

\hto having five conversations with people you know this week

about why marriage matters to \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hyou.

- It’s conversation that \h\h\h\h\hengages people

in really looking at the people involved

and thinking about their own \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hvalues

and change their, change their \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hmind.

\h- This is personal because we’re talking about my kids

\h\h\h\hand that makes me want to advocate for more.

- So we talked earlier, you’ve \hgot these five conversations

you know, you just said all the reasons

why they are important.

The goal is that if I can \hhave five conversations

and then can teach five people

to have the same conversations,

then that is 25 conversations \h\ha week that are happening

and it just kind of adds up and adds up

until marriage is fully \h\h\h\h\h\h\haccepted.

Do you want to call them

and see if they want to go to \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hlunch?

- Sure.

- Okay.

Hey, girl, I did this crazy thing last night

and I wanted to share it with \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hyou and see,

do you want to go to lunch \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\htomorrow?

Okay, I love you, too.

Bye.

- So she said yes?

- Yes, she said yes.

- This is great, you are gonna \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hdo awesome.

\h\h\h\h\h- The Vermont Supreme Court had this beautiful phrase

in which they said that this \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hcase,

\hthis Freedom To Marry case, is about our common humanity.

\hAnd we had to get people to see the common humanity

and then understand how the law

must treat all of us as people.

- You want coffee? \h\h\h\h\h- Yeah.

\h- This is a struggle that I am going through

and it’s difficult because \h\hthey are my children.

- This is about a respectful \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hdialog.

It comes back to the elements \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hof love

and what that means to every \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hone of us.

- Because this is important for me,

this is personal, this is.

- Well, you are my friend, so I support what you do.

- This is.

\h- You are my friend, and because it makes you happy,

I’ll do what you need me to do.

- Thank you.

- You have to know that.

(laughing)

- Oh.

\h- This is a revolution, one conversation at a time

is how we win this.

(upbeat whimsical music)

- Evan, it’s good to have you back on this program.

\h\h\hYou have worked more than anybody else on this.

\h\h\h\h\h- Heroes like Evan Wolfson who joins us tonight.

We’re honored to have you, sir.

- Good to meet you finally.

\h\h\h- Hi, good to meet you or see you again, whichever it is.

This is what civil rights feels like.

It isn’t easy, it doesn’t \h\h\h\h\hhappen quickly,

but if you stick with it,

if you believe you can do it, \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hyou can.

This moment has been decades in the making

\hand now America is ready for the freedom to marry.

(audience applauding)

\h\h- You know, essentially, if proponents of same-sex marriage

\h\h\hare so certain that they’ve got public opinion

\h\hon their side, then why not see how this plays out?

Why have the court come in

and short-circuit the \hdemocratic process?

- The facts are not contested \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hby anybody

that the married couple, man \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hand woman,

\h\h\h\hmom-and-dad family is the best for raising children.

- Same-sex couples are raising \h\hkids, they’re having kids,

\h\hand these laws are hurting those kids that we’re raising.

- Who can say that these parents are not entitled

to the best for their kids?

Who can say, with a clear heart,

\hthat these kids are not entitled to everything we,

as a society, can give them?

Who is to say that these \hpeople are not worthy

of that bundle of protections \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hand security

that every parent wants for \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\htheir kids

and that we want for our loved \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hones?

And that bundle is called \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hmarriage.

\h\h\h\h\hPeople marry somebody because that person is precious.

The essence of the right to \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hmarry

is the freedom to marry \hthe person you choose.

I feel very, very lucky \hto have found somebody

\h\h\hsmart and centered and loving who loves me.

So what are you guys doing for.

\h\h\h\hBut even the people who live in a Freedom to Marry state

as my husband and I do in New \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hYork,

we’re still not fully respected and secure

because when we travel

to one of the discriminating \h\hstates we’re vulnerable.

And then of course there are \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hthe people

who live in the discriminating \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hstates.

\hThis is one country, with one Constitution.

We’re not done until it’s done \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\heverywhere.

(seagulls squawking)

(dramatic music)

\h\h- Mary is engaged in a very intense process of preparation.

\h- I wish I had tons of time to prepare for this.

I appreciate people saying to \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hme, Mary,

\h\h\hyou have been doing this for 20 years, you’ve got this.

And that is true.

But I don’t think it’s in the \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hbag.

I think we’re gonna have to \h\h\h\h\h\h\hfight to win.

You know, I’m counting every \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hday here.

- I know, yeah.

- Do you think we could have \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hsome sort

of stand-up-type thing where I just stand up

and I will just start talking

and you guys should start \h\h\h\h\h\hhammering me.

- Will do. \h- Okay.

\h- But you know the stuff, and this will just be a way

to start and to get in the \h\h\h\h\h\h\hfirst mood,

maybe get a little more \h\h\h\h\h\hcomfortable

and then go into the rest of \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hthem.

- Yeah.

\h\h\h\h\h\hThe Supreme Court experts who I’m hearing from,

people who know the justices in a way that I never will,

\hthey are telling me, "Focus, you should not

"assume you have this."

- She’s eaten and breathed \hand lived this material,

but that doesn’t mean you are \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hprepared

for any obscure question that might come your way

from any of the justices.

And you know, you only have one chance

and you want to get it right.

- I mean, the fact is we could \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hlose.

We’ve got nine people making a \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hdecision

for the entire country.

If they think America is really not ready,

they probably won’t move \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hforward.

- Of the five that we need and the majority,

we have four of them pretty for sure.

\h\h\hThen we have the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

- Scalia, Justice Thomas and \h\h\h\h\h\h\hJustice Alito

are extremely conservative.

And there is no reason for me \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hto think

that Roberts is with us.

So the key court member that \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hyou need

in any LGBT issue is Justice \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hKennedy.

He is seen as the swing vote.

Kennedy is really the audience \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hof one

that the advocates were \h\h\h\h\hspeaking to.

- All right, this could be \h\h\h\h\hgroundbreaking.

\hThe history-making hearing that could change the lives

of gay couples across the \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hcountry.

- [Reporter] The line is long, the hopes are high

outside the United States \h\h\h\h\h\hSupreme Court

where people have been waiting \h\hfor days to secure a spot

for the same-sex marriage \h\h\hhearing on Tuesday.

- [Announcer] Let’s not be ashamed of who we are

or who we represent.

\h\hWe represent the King of kings and the Lord of lords,

and let’s give God a big praise for our brother Brian Brown.

- I can tell you right now,

\h\hthis is the largest march for marriage ever.

God bless you for being here.

We don’t accept and it’s not \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\htrue

that there is a civil right \h\h\hto redefine marriage.

All you’re going to do,

is you’re going to further polarize American society.

- President Obama likes to say \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hthat no one

\h\hshould lose their job because of who they love.

What if who they love is Jesus \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hChrist?

(audience cheering)

\h\h\h\h- If the court tomorrow changes the law in this country,

it doesn’t change what marriage is,

it just embeds a lie into the \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hlaw.

We need to quit glorifying families without a father,

to take a stand for justice, \h\h\h\h\h\h\hfor children,

for men and women and for our \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hnation.

(audience cheering)

(bell tolling)

(church members singing)

\h- Where there is love all things are possible.

- When all can marry without \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hfear of bias

\h\h\hand discrimination humankind moves forward,

Islam moves forward.

- Justice and human dignity are cherished Jewish values.

- We labor together toward the \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hday

when all people are welcomed.

- We United Methodists recognize

\hthat sexuality is God’s good gift to all persons.

\h\h\h\h- Did Ruth and Naomi have a lesbian relationship?

It is clear the two women had a lifelong passionate,

\hcommitted relationship celebrated in scripture.

(upbeat band music)

- [Crowd] One man, one woman.

One man, one woman.

One man, one woman.

One man, one woman.

One man, one woman.

- We need you, O God, we need \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hyou!

America needs you, Lord.

Pour out your spirit!

- We need you!

We need you!

- Lord, I’m yours!

Lord, I’m yours!

Glory to God!

- [Man] Jesus!

Jesus!

Jesus!

Jesus!

(horn blaring)

(audience cheering)

- Welcome everyone. \h\h\h- Thank you.

\h\h- So name tags, and then you’ll go get pictures taken.

- Hi, April DeBoer, nice to \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hmeet you.

- Hi, nice to meet you.

- Thank you.

- We care very much about this \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hissue.

- Very much, give me a hug!

\h- We were the first ones to challenge the California ban.

- A picture where you each kiss me?

Can we do that? \h- Okay, yeah.

- Wait, we need another one.

- Oh God, I gave you lipstick. \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h- Uh-huh.

- I remember that--

- You guys look so great, you \hguys haven’t changed at all.

It’s ridiculous.

On the eve of the Supreme \hCourt argument tomorrow,

it is my delight to welcome all of you

\hto this historic gathering of plaintiffs and attorneys

\hfrom more than 33 states spanning more than 40 years

\h\h\h\h\hof our movement’s battles in the courts of law

and in the court of public \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hopinion

to win the freedom to marry.

(audience cheering)

Will all the plaintiffs here \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\htonight

please raise your hands?

\h\h\hAnd those who don’t have their hands, we clap.

And on that note, let’s give a round of applause

to the current Supreme Court \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hplaintiffs,

the Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio

and Tennessee couples here \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\htonight.

(audience cheering)

\h\hWe have made our case to the country and to the courts

and tonight is for savoring the moment

and looking forward in great \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hhope.

- Four years ago.

\h\h- (chuckles) Four years of hard work comes to this.

- Here we are.

Equal justice under the law.

(police sirens wailing)

- You violate the laws of God,

\h\h\hyou violate the laws of nature and you better repent.

- Regardless of what the \hSupreme Court decides,

\hthis nation is still under the laws of God.

- Unworthy!

- Are you for or against it?

Fuck you, you coward, go home!

\h- So what is happening today in this building?

Freedom, justice and equality.

\h\h\h- The Bible and the God of the Bible is that lawgiver!

He is that life giver.

\h\h\h- You know, you have to admire their conviction.

♪ God won’t stand by you

♪ He will destroy you

- God is love, God is love. \h\h- And hate, and wrath.

- God is not hate, God is love.

- Tell that to the people in \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hhell!

\h\h- When people told me they came from Louisiana and Texas,

I was pretty amazed.

Our folks are here, we’re \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hpraying,

hoping the court doesn’t \h\hdo the wrong thing.

See, no one knows until the \h\h\h\h\h\h\hcourt rules.

- There is a higher court besides the Supreme Court,

Gloria, and wait till you meet \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hGod.

- Love will win, love will win.

- We pray to God for the \h\h\h\h\hdismantlement

of the danger to the whole \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hnation!

LGBT is against God and against humanity.

- [Woman] We’re queer.

- [Crowd] We know it!

- [Woman] We’re here!

- [Crowd] To show it!

What you see is what you get,

and you ain’t seen nothing yet.

- [Woman] We’re here to show it!

What you see is what you get.

- Everybody is here.

- Look at this. \h\h\h- I know.

- Wow!

- Yes, thank you.

- [Man] Take care, you guys, \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hgood luck.

- Let’s win.

(audience cheering)

- [Crowd] Go, Mary, go!

Go, Mary, go!

Go, Mary, go!

Go, Mary, go!

Go, Mary, go!

Go, Mary, go!

We will win!

We will win!

We will win!

We will win!

We will win!

We will win!

We will win!

Love must win!

Love must win!

Love must win!

Love must win!

Love must win!

Love must win!

(audience cheering)

Love must win!

Love must win!

Love must win!

Love must win!

- Mary, we love you, thank you.

- Can I just give you a hug?

- Totally.

- Mazel tov I’m so proud of you.

- Thank you.

How did it go in there?

- I don’t know, it was \h\h\h\h\hinteresting.

I think that it’s gonna take \hme a while to process it.

\h\h\h- [Woman] SCOTUSblog said you had a rough start.

- And that’s the only thing \hthat is out there, yeah?

- Yeah.

It just goes to show you can’t \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\htell

where their heads are at.

- We stand before you one step \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hcloser

to being a legalized and \h\h\hrecognized family

\hand hopefully we’re on the right side of history

and our kids will now have equal protection.

Thank you.

(audience applauding)

- The real heart of this issue, always,

\hevery day is real people who have committed to one another,

\h\hwho simply want to make that commitment a legal one.

And that is where we certainly \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hhope

this will all end up in the end.

Thank you.

I did the best I could.

Everything I prepared is not what happened.

- We’re in good hands.

(chuckling)

- It’s so hard to say how it \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hwent.

Now our fate and the fate of \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hour marriage

is in the hands of nine \h\h\h\h\h\h\hjustices,

so we’ll see what they do.

- We’re proud of you, so proud \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hof you!

So proud of you.

- You did the last lap, you did.

- You did the first lap, I did the best I could.

\h\h- Don’t even, don’t even have that thought!

- I’m just saying.

- [John] I know, that’s what \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hI’m saying.

- Arguments went very well for \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hus today.

\h\h\hOne word that Kennedy started with was millennia,

\h\hsaying why should we change what has existed for millennia,

why do we have the right to \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hdecide?

The other side had built up \h\h\h\h\h\h\hexpectations

that oral arguments were going

to overwhelmingly go in their \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hdirection.

We have no rational arguments.

Politico today has the audacity

\h\h\hto have a Gerstein piece saying, there are no arguments

left against gay marriage.

What a joke.

\h\hWhat they want to do is again influence legislators,

\h\h\h\hinfluence the court by predicting this inevitability,

\h\hbut the one problem is is that it’s not inevitable

and today’s hearing made that \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h100% clear.

\h\h\h\h\h- I am Laura. - Very nice to meet you.

Thank you so much for today.

- Thank you.

Yeah, I, anyway, I did the best I could.

It’s amazing how-- \h- You did great.

- Stop it!

I was a little unnerved \hby the whole process.

You know, everyone knew

there would be very aggressive \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hquestioning

of whoever stood up first, and \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hthere was.

- Mary got three sentences before she was interrupted

and she got interrupted in like,

a weird direction right to \h\h\h\h\h\h\hbegin with.

\h\h- Mary got a crazy barrage of wild hypothetical questions,

everything from polygamy \h\h\hto Ancient Greece.

You know, Mary was just hit \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hwith a,

it was like bam, bam, bam.

- I had hoped to talk more \h\h\h\h\habout equality,

but at the other hand they \hhad plenty of questions.

A lot of them were putting \h\h\hme on the defensive,

without a doubt,

and what do you do when you’re in that position?

You try to respectfully \hanswer the question,

but also pivot to your own points and so I did that,

I tried to do that repeatedly.

- You were, you were so ready.

- Are you feeling okay?

It’s so hard, I think you \h\hhad such a hard run.

- You know, every lawyer I think has the argument

they think they are gonna have,

then the one they have

and then the one they wished \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hthey had.

- Here’s to five organizations

\hthat have spent 20 years in the trenches to ensure

\h\h\h\hthat we have lived equality in our community.

That message will be heard \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hworldwide.

We are grateful.

Thank you.

(audience cheering)

\h\h- If we lose the Supreme Court, it’s not fine at all.

\h\h\h\h\hThere is a very good chance that many of the states

that are in the bag now would \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hbe undone.

We would have to, you know, \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hspend,

literally hundreds of millions \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hof dollars

fighting ballot fights

in some of the toughest \hplaces in the country.

\h- If they think we’re not ready, we’re stuck.

We’re stuck for probably 10 \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hyears.

\h\h- For us to lose this case brings us squarely to the point

where a class of people \h\hare denied marriage

\h\h\hbecause of who they are, because they are second class.

And that is something I truly hope this court would not do.

\h\h- I don’t want to be an LGBT person in this country

with that being the answer,

because the impact will be \h\h\h\h\h\h\hdevastating.

\h- How are we doing on the working up quickly a concept

and a plan to be ready on the air if we lose?

- Well, what do you think the \htheme should be if we lose?

\h\h\h- This matters to real people and it’s a real injury

and it’s not living up to America’s promise,

but we’re gonna get there

and here is how we’re gonna get there.

\h- How tough should we be on the Supreme Court?

The Supreme Court let America \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hdown today?

- Yeah, totally.

\h\hYeah, today the Supreme Court let the country down,

but Americans are better than \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hthis

and the stakes are too high and we know how to get there

and we’re gonna get there.

No loss is gonna stop us

and that we’re not gonna \htake no for an answer.

\h- It pisses me off so much to think that we could lose.

The notion of waiting for a new court

\h\hwhich means, justices to leave the court is, (sighs).

- Right, but hopefully we won’t go there.

- May I please have the \h\h\h\hAthenian omelet

but without the mushrooms, \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hplease?

- That’s my order!

Except, I want egg whites and \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hwell done.

Yeah, I like everything well \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hdone.

- Do you like-- \h\h- Likewise.

Thank you.

\h\h\hDivided justices spar over right to gay marriage.

- Yeah.

\h- Do you suspect that’s the headline they wanted?

(chuckling)

I do.

- Frankly, I am fine with \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hdivided.

- Yes.

\h\hSo what is your travel schedule between now and--

\h\h- Well, my travel schedule primarily involves, of course,

going back and forth to \h\h\h\hWashington D.C.

and waiting for a decision.

I definitely want to be in the \hcourtroom when they decide.

Although I plan to go back and \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hforth

so I can see my kids in the \h\h\h\h\h\hmorning, yeah.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h- Yeah? - That’s the deal, yeah.

- I’m not planning to go to \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hD.C.,

\h\h\hI want to be in New York and roll out the team

and respond and back you up \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hand--

- Yeah, thank you. \h\h\h\h\h- Yeah.

- I’m trying to figure out

how I’m gonna handle both \h\h\h\h\h\h\hscenarios.

If there were a loss,

it would reverberate on so many levels,

but it’s hard not to worry, I \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hmean.

- Of course.

- I know this is an annoying \h\h\h\hthing about me, but,

I don’t want to take things \hfor granted, I don’t, and.

- Yeah. - Yeah.

- Let me ask you, do you feel like this is your life’s work?

- I resist that framing.

- Well, Freedom to Marry will \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hclose down,

but I would like to think there is another chapter coming.

I do feel like, wow, I have \hbeen writing about this,

\hspeaking about it and working on it constantly

in one form or another for 32 \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hyears.

\h\h\h\h- And at the same time, there’s other issues

we have got to get our arms \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\haround

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hto make sure that throughout the whole life cycle,

people have freedoms and \h\h\h\h\hopportunities

and their life circumstances \hhaven’t been disadvantaged

because of who they are.

I have not listened to the tape.

I have read the transcript.

I have not listened to the tape.

\hSince I’m listening, I might as well take some notes, right?

Okay.

- We will hear arguments this \hmorning in case number 14556

Obergefell v. Hodges and the \h\h\h\hconsolidating cases.

Miss Bonauto.

\h- Mr. Chief Justice, may it please the court, the intimate

and committed relationships \h\h\hof same-sex couples,

just like those of heterosexual couples,

provide mutual support and are the foundation

of family life in our society.

It’s interesting.

\h\hI was trying to talk slow, but I am clearly talking fast.

Okay.

\h\h- You’re not seeking to join the institution,

you’re seeking to change what the institution is.

A fundamental core of the \h\h\h\h\h\h\hinstitution

is the opposite-sex relationship

\h\h\hand you want to introduce into it a same-sex relationship.

- I think when we look at the 14th Amendment

we know that it provides \h\henduring guarantees,

\h\hand the question is whether gay people share

that same liberty to be.

Clearly, I’m sticking with the Constitution,

I think the Constitution is on \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hour side.

\h\h\h\h\h\h- Do you know of any society prior to the Netherlands

in 2001 that permitted same-sex marriage?

- As a legal matter, Your Honor?

- As a legal matter.

- I am not, I am not, I.

Okay, I have paid for that \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hanswer.

I mean, it’s clearly a time \h\h\h\h\h\h\hwhen I think

some people wish I had said.

\h\h\h\h\hThere have been gay people through the millennia.

\h\hThere have been same-sex couples forming relationships

through the millennia, and that is all true.

It wasn’t the question, however.

\hThe question was, are there societies that have permitted

same-sex marriage as a legal \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hmatter?

- But did they have same-sex marriage in Ancient Greece?

- Yeah, I don’t think they had \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hanything

comparable to what we have, \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hYour Honor.

- I mean, we’re talking about--

- Well, they had marriage, \h\h\h\h\h\h\hdidn’t they?

- Yeah, they had, yes.

- They had some sort of \h\h\h\h\h\h\hmarriage.

- And they had--

- And they had same-sex relations, did they not?

- Yes, and they also were able \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hto--

- So, their limiting marriage to couples of the opposite sex

\hwas not based on prejudice against gay people, was it?

- I can’t speak to what was \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hhappening

with the ancient philosophers, \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hbut.

I mean, there may be an opinion out there

\h\h\hthat references Ancient Greece, I have not found one.

\h\h- I would like to hear the precise answer to the question

you have been asked several \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\htimes.

- Okay.

- The opposite view has been the law everywhere

\hfor thousands of years and suddenly you want nine people

outside the ballot box to \hrequire states to change

what marriage is to include gay people.

Why can’t those states at least wait and see?

\h\h- It’s not about the court versus the states,

it’s about the individual making the choice to marry

and with whom to marry, or the \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hgovernment.

I’d been wanting to say that, I’d been wanting to say that.

I am not gonna sit down until I say that!

So I said it.

\h\h\h\hI hear that Michigan loves adoption and in fact--

Yeah.

I have to admit I was mad and I was mad

because I thought about the \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hsuffering

\h\hand the pain that these women and so many like them

\h\h\hgo through with the fact that only one of them

is allowed to be the parent.

They can’t tell their kids

\h\h\hthat they are really a whole one big family in law.

Felt like it was an example of \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hdoublespeak

and I was determined to address it.

\h\h\h\h- Because by denying marriage to same-sex couples

\h\h\h\hwe’re denying not only the protection for the adults,

which is independently \h\h\h\h\h\himportant,

but we’re denying those \h\h\h\h\h\hprotections

and that security that would \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hcome

from having married parents.

So, with that, thank you.

- Thank you, Counsel.

The Court will take a brief \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hbreak

and return to the bench in five minutes.

- All right then.

Yeah, it’s not a touchy-feely \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hexperience,

it’s not a warm and fuzzy \h\h\h\h\h\h\hexperience,

I guess is really more of the way to put it.

\h\h\hIt’s not a warm and fuzzy experience, but what can I say?

I think that it’s a great \hsystem where people can

weigh in with all this law,

\hpeople having expertise can weigh in on both sides

and then there is this hearing.

Again, I think it’s the tip of \hthe iceberg at the hearing,

but it’s a system I think \h\h\hwe can be proud of.

It’s not true everywhere.

\h\h\h- All right, so everybody knows why we’re here, obviously,

today is one of what may be the one decision day

or a set of decision days that arguably are possible

but then turn out not to be ours

and we have to keep gathering.

Starting at 10:00, the court \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hconvenes.

Within a few minutes after \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h10:00,

they will start announcing \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hdecisions.

There are 20 decisions waiting.

Literally, until we get the \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hruling,

nobody knows what the answer is.

\h\hMeanwhile, we all are refreshing our SCOTUSblog

\hin order to get the news from people on the ground.

- Third and final.

Well, we’re done for the day.

So we’re all on for Thursday.

- Yup.

- Thank you everybody.

Okay, so let’s just run through.

\hLike, today if it had come through what’s gonna happen.

\h- So we will go up with all of our prepared social media.

\h\h\h\hIdeally, weddings would begin right away in many states.

- In some places, yeah.

- And just kind of keeping \h\h\h\h\h\hpeople posted.

- Okay, so today obviously \h\h\hwas unusually fast.

Like, we were done within a \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hminute.

\h- Yeah, maybe they will make it easy on all of us

and save it till the very last \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hday.

- Great so, today we were \hready and back to work.

(bright whimsical music)

\h\h\h- [Woman] She wants to increase the character limit.

- Okay, let’s do it.

Do we have champagne?

♪ Weh, weh, weh

- Okay, thank you everybody.

Same time tomorrow.

- Go back to your desks and \h\h\h\h\h\hstart working.

(laughing)

Not us today, so we’re back to, back to work.

- Thank you everybody.

- ObamaCare?

- No, not us today, by the \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hcheek.

- We’re so ready!

I woke up this morning \hsinging One Day More

so I think it’s tomorrow. \h\h\h\h\h\h\h(laughing)

- Say, Decision day.

- [Staff] Decision day!

- All right, say, back to work.

- [Staff] Back to work!

- What is it?

So, we can go back to work.

(light hopeful music)

- Oh, we got a text from Mary.

It says, hi, April, please know I am thinking of you, Jayne,

and your amazing kids each and \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hevery day.

No matter what happens, we’re \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hright.

\h\hThank you for having me as part of your team.

My best and big hugs all \h\h\h\h\haround, Mary.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h- Aw. - Isn’t that sweet?

Maybe it will come today.

- Hey, let’s do it.

Here we are again.

\h\hI am sure everybody is feeling the pressure,

the tension, the anxiety.

\h\hToday would be a lovely day to finish the campaign.

Actually, can I just have \hone sec with everybody?

- Yes.

- No matter what happens, I just really want to say

thank you to all of you.

This has been a wonderful team

\h\hand we all have done such great work together.

I don’t know if I will ever have another team like this,

and thank you all.

- 9:59, 10 o’clock.

Here we go!

Okay.

Are you schvitzing?

- [Woman] My palms are sweaty! \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h(giggles)

- Should we go around the room?

- Marriage?

- [Jayne] What?

- They are gonna start with it?

- [Man] What?

- [Woman] They’re starting \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hwith--

- Marriage?

- Marriage? \h\h- Holy.

- [Man] What happened?

\h\h\h\h\h\h- Here we go. - Kennedy has the opinion!

- Oh, God!

- Chris Geidner, The Supreme \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hCourt ends

same-sex marriage bans \h\h\h\h\hnationwide.

(everyone applauding) (everyone cheering)

(joyful piano music)

Oh, my God!

\h\h- We are now the campaign that won marriage nationwide.

Wow.

- [Woman] Congratulations, \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hAmerica!

(camera shutters clicking)

- I am Mary Bonauto and I want \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hto say

today was a momentous decision

\h\hand it’s going to bring joy to millions of families,

gay and straight, across this \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hland.

And I thank everyone who has \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hhelped

make this day possible, \h\hmillions of people.

- Now we can actually be a \h\h\h\h\h\hlegal family,

\hand so, apparently, we have to plan a marriage!

(laughing)

(audience applauding) (audience cheering)

- Well, that only took 32 years.

(laughing)

- Our nation was founded \hon a bedrock principle

that we are all created equal.

The project of each generation \h\h\his to bridge the meaning

of those founding words

with the realities of changing \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\htimes.

\h\hA never-ending quest to ensure those words ring true

for every single American.

Progress on this journey often \h\hcomes in small increments,

\h\hsometimes two steps forward, one step back,

\hpropelled by the persistent effort of dedicated citizens.

\h\h\hAnd then sometimes there are days like this

\h\h\h\hwhen that slow, steady effort is rewarded with justice

that arrives like a thunderbolt.

What an extraordinary \h\h\h\hachievement,

\hwhat a vindication of the belief that ordinary people

can do extraordinary things.

Those countless, often \h\hanonymous heroes,

they should be very proud.

America should be very proud of you.

(audience applauding) (audience cheering)

- To the freedom to marry.

We did it!

- I feel like I do this \hwork because of love

\hfor so many people and the aspirations of so many people

\h\hwho just want to be able to be who they are.

(audience cheering)

- In 20 years, hopefully I’ll \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hbe married

\hand my wife and I can have a conversation with our daughter

\h\h\hand, you know, she says, why was marriage ever a thing?

- There is a tremendous amount \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hof work

\hstill to be done, but this was a conversation

that engaged our entire country

about who gay and lesbian and \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hbisexual

and transgender people really \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hare.

\h\h\h\h- So many people did not live to see this moment.

What a privilege to be alive.

I mean, my God!

Who gets to do that?

\h\h\h- And I hope that future generations take it for granted

that they have the freedom to \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hmarry,

\h\h\h\hbecause they should be able to take that for granted.

- It’s very much like my paper.

It actually weaves together \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hthings

in the way that I wrote them.

It’s beautiful.

I always believed we could win.

You have to believe.

("Wedding March")

♪ I’m gonna marry you someday

♪ Get you out of here

♪ I’m gonna carry you away

♪ We’re gonna disappear

♪ We’re gonna go, oh oh oh \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hsomeday ♪

\h\h\h\h♪ We’re gonna fly, we’re gonna fly, fly away ♪

♪ I’m gonna marry you someday

♪ Just you wait and see

♪ I’m gonna save enough someway ♪

♪ Make you my bride-to-be

♪ We’ll be so oh oh oh, happy

♪ Baby, you ooh ooh ooh, you \h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hand me ♪

\h\h\h♪ See, we’re gonna laugh, we’re gonna cry ♪

♪ We’re gonna live, we’re gonna love ♪

♪ We’ll always get by

(hopeful music)

(singers vocalizing)