Marriage Equality – Step One!

June 26, 2015

One step toward the right to family…

Woodhull Sexual Freedom Alliance applauds the decision by the Supreme Court of the United States in favor of the freedom for anyone who wishes to marry to do so.

This is one step – a victory to be sure, but just one step – toward full recognition of our human right to family.

The right to family is a human right that has been acknowledged by the United Nations and the United States since 1948. Family is the most fundamental unit of social organization, but this does not mean that all families fit a single model. Preferred family forms change over time and vary across communities and cultures. In addition, within any given time and place, individuals form families that vary from one another. It is imperative that societies recognize and respect this diversity of family by creating new approaches and policies that embrace and embody these differences.

Marriage equality is now the law of the land. But marriage is just one form of family and the recent battle, as important as it has been, has only secured recognition for that one form. Unfortunately, where marriage equality has been won, domestic partner benefits have been removed by local and state governments, and by many corporations.  The rights of one group of people should never be secured at the cost of the rights of another.

One of the key programs at Woodhull is the Family Matters Project. The Family Matters Project works to shift the national dialogue about family away from its rigid focus on marriage equality so that we can achieve recognition for all forms of family and ensure that justice for one family is justice for all families!