The Freedom to Marry Showcases Oregon's Role in the Fight for Marriage Equality

It's a good thing the 90's are no longer alive in Portland, at least in terms of gay rights.

(courtesy of Facebook)

"We were badly losing before we were winning," recalls Thalia Zepatos, the Portland-based director of research and messaging for national marriage-equality nonprofit Freedom to Marry. "Oregon was one of the worst states for LGBT rights in the '90s after Measure 8, but it was here in Portland in 2010 that a polling firm found that most voters think of marriage in the form of love and commitment."

On Monday, the Hollywood Theatre will put a ring on Eddie Rosenstein's war room-style documentary The Freedom to Marry, officiating at its cinematic debut in Oregon with Zepatos and Nancy Haque, co-director of Basic Rights Oregon. The premiere, prodded by Trump's ascendance to the White House, is a tribute to Oregon's bittersweet history with LGBT politics and its understated role in the marriage-equality ruling at the Supreme Court.

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"Before [2010], we were talking about marriage in a legal sense," says Zepatos. "Basic Rights Oregon and Why Marriage Matters shifted the message here, and we transformed the argument on a national level, all the way to the high court."

The film chronicles the psychology behind Freedom to Marry's political strategy, as well as several Obergefell v. Hodges star players—Evan Wolfson, the nonprofit's founder; civil rights lawyer Mary Bonauto, who argued the case in court; and partners April DeBoer and Jayne Rowse, who were leading plaintiffs—is just as much about marketing and contemporary grassroots campaigning as it is about celebrating the victory.

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"There are a lot of social movements that feel embattled after the victory of Donald Trump who might find something in this film to be moving," explains Zepatos, who features throughout the documentary. "We've gotten calls from the immigrant movement, gun rights activists. They want to know how you create a climate around the Supreme Court. When the opposing lawyer made the opening argument [at the Supreme Court] that marriage is much more than love and commitment, using our own argument against us, we knew we were winning."

Local LGBT equality groups delivered the shot heard around the world by supplying the national movement with its trademark argument, that marriage is about falling in love with another person, rather than an idea. Oregon deserves a raised glass.

SEE IT: The Freedom to Marry screens at the Hollywood Theatre. 7:30 pm Monday, Dec. 12. Thalia Zepatos and Nancy Haque will attend.

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