Our Work in the Courts Take Action! and the Community There are things you can do right now to government officials about the issue. To • Nationwide, the ACLU has filed advance the cause of equal rights and organize an ACLU house party, contact lawsuits challenging bans on marriage marriage. [email protected]. Why by same-sex couples in Oregon, California, New York, and Maryland. • Keep yourself and others informed • Meet with clergy and other opinion Marriage about recent developments in marriage leaders in your community and ask • In Washington, the ACLU is pursuing equality by going to www.aclu-wa.org. It them to join you in speaking out in a suit on behalf of 11 same-sex couples is often useful to utilize personal stories support of marriage equality and against seeking to establish equal marriage Equality of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender the Federal Marriage Amendment. rights statewide. couples when convincing others of the need for equal marriage rights. • Join our e-mail activist network at • The ACLU is a leading member of Matters www.aclu-wa.org and stay informed Equal Rights Washington, a statewide • Write a letter to the editor of your about legislative developments on coalition of sexual minority organizations local newspaper saying why you support marriage equality. and allies. legal marriages for same-sex couples and why a constitutional amendment • Make a financial contribution to • The ACLU has helped organize town against marriage equality is a bad idea. support the ACLU of Washington. hall meetings on equal marriage rights in communities across the state, • Speak up the next time you hear including Olympia, Port Townsend, someone say marriage is only meant for Seattle, Spokane, Tacoma, and Yakima. heterosexual couples. If you hear this on • ACLU representatives speak out a radio program, call in. If you hear it on frequently on the need for marriage TV, call or send an e-mail. If it comes up equality in the mass media and in public in conversation, state your views clearly forums have educated students about and forcefully. the issue in school classrooms. • Host a house party at which you can • The ACLU has designed and educate friends and family about distributed educational materials on marriage equality and raise funds for marriage equality to thousands of people groups working on the cause. Invite a across Washington. Information is diverse group. Promote discussion and 705 Second Ave., Suite 300 available on the ACLU of Washington Seattle, WA 98104 answer questions. Encourage them to website at www.aclu-wa.org. Phone: (206) 324-2570 write letters to Congress and to state 1/05 www.aclu-wa.org • Social Security survivor and Why should same-sex couples have How will granting marriage rights to What about people who oppose pension benefits the right to marry? same-sex couples affect families? granting marriage equality because • Hospital visitation rights of their religious beliefs? • Medical decision-making rights The right to get married is a fundamental It will provide security and stability to • Inheritance rights Civil marriage involves a legal contract right. As a fundamental right, it should families. According to the 2000 Census, • Family leave under the federal between two people. Equal access to be equally available to all citizens. The there are more than a million children Family Medical Leave Act legal marriage does not affect the right government should not deny two people being raised by same-sex couples in the • End-of-life decisions of religious institutions to decide whom the right to legal marriage just because they will marry. No church or religious they are of the same sex. That is Marriage: Civil Unions: organization will be required to perform discrimination and is contrary to a marriage ceremony for a same-sex American values of fair and equal couple, nor will anyone have to change treatment for all. Just like heterosexuals, States grant marriage licenses to couples. States would grant civil union licenses to their religious beliefs. many lesbians and gays grow up same-sex couples but marriage licenses dreaming of meeting a partner and to opposite-sex couples. making a lifelong commitment to another Hasn’t the right to marry historically been limited to opposite-sex couples? person. They should not be denied Couples have legal protections, rights, and Couples receive legal protections, rights, Isn’t this an important part of our pursuit of this portion of the American responsibilities under state and federal and responsibilities under state law which cultural tradition? dream simply because they have a law. are effective only when located in the state. same-sex partner. Marriage equality arises from America’s Couples are recognized as being married Civil unions are not recognized by other tradition of ending discriminatory Aren’t civil unions for same-sex by the federal government and all state states or federal government. treatment and erasing inequities of the couples good enough? governments. past. The fact that laws have barred same-sex couples from marriage in the Unequal treatment is not acceptable. While civil unions and domestic United States. These children are past does not mean it is right to continue Civil unions do not provide the same partnerships provide some concrete negatively impacted by discriminatory doing so. The same argument – “This rights, benefits, and obligations as civil benefits for same-sex couples, they fall laws. They are needlessly deprived of is tradition. This is the way it has always marriage. There are over 1,000 federal far short of the benefits provided under the legal protections that most families been …” – was also used to support rights and more than 350 rights and marriage laws. And if government were take for granted. Marriage equality is a our now-discarded ban on marriage by obligations in our state that protect to make civil unions entirely equal, why pro-family ideal. interracial couples. American history is married couples and their families, devalue the relationship by refusing to filled with examples of the enactment of including: call it marriage? new laws that extend legal rights to people previously treated unequally..