ATLANTA, GA - February 4 - With the 11th annual Freedom to Marry Week, February 10-16, 2008 just 6 days away, the number of events scheduled across the country to speak out, and seek support, for marriage equality continues to grow!

“Every year, right around President Lincoln's Birthday and Valentine's Day, gay and non-gay people around the country gather to talk about our lives, our loves and our families, celebrate the victories from the year before and continue the fight for the freedom to marry." said Evan Wolfson, executive director of Freedom to Marry and author of Why Marriage Matters: America, Equality and Gay People's Right to Marry.  “As Al Gore and a unanimous appellate court in New York have both just shown, the more people are asked to think through how the denial of marriage harms couples and their kids, the more they rise to fairness.”

Wolfson is referring to Al Gore’s endorsement of the freedom to marry in January and last Friday’s New York appellate court ruling that valid out-of-state marriages of same-sex couples must be legally recognized in New York.

Freedom to Marry Week activities around the country include:

Love Makes a Family (Connecticut): Youth Celebration and Film Premieres of Marriage Makes a Word of Difference in honor of Freedom to Marry Week

University of Idaho: 11th Annual Observance of "Freedom to Marry" Week with events throughout the week on campus

Lambda Legal Illinois: 7th Annual Freedom to Marry Reception, February 7, 2008

Equality Maryland: 2008 Lobby Day in Annapolis. February 11, 2008

Affirmations (Michigan): Celebrate Freedom to Marry Week this year with a series of 3 events: Marriage Equality Forum, Valentine’s Day Domestic Partnership Registry, & Rally on the Nine

Frameline (California): February 14th showing of the marriage equality documentary The Year of Paper

For more event listings and to learn more about Freedom to Marry Week, visit: http://www.freedomtomarry.org/get_involved/freedom_to_marry_week_2008.php

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Freedom to Marry is the gay and non-gay partnership working to win marriage equality nationwide. Launched in 2003, Freedom to Marry is headed by Evan Wolfson, nationally recognized as a central "architect of the marriage equality movement." Freedom to Marry guides and focuses this social justice movement on a nationwide level, serving as a strategy and support center for national, state, and local partners, a catalyst that drives and shapes the national debate on marriage equality, and an alliance-builder fostering support from non-gay allies.

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