The Freedom to Marry

I felt like I was standing there beside the freedom to marry activists, meeting, organizing, marching, crying, cheering. A very personal, insider reveal about making positive change. Wonderfully sad and happy moments and a blueprint for bringing people around to see what equality means to the disenfranchised.

The Freedom to Marry (2016) is a documentary directed by Eddie Rosenstein. Now, the right of people to have a same-sex marriage is simply part of our culture. It's hard to remember that this right came only after a very recent Supreme Court ruling (June 2015).

In the years to come, young people will assume that African-Americans could always ride in the front of the bus, and that race or religion would not bar anyone from becoming President. However, these rights that we take for granted were all won by people who kept pushing for them over many years.

This movie shows us the struggle for same-sex marriage that went on for years before the Supreme Court ruling. Two major players were activist Evan Wolfson and attorney Mary Bonauto.

The movie brings us face-to-face with both Wolfson and Bonauto, as well as with many people who were key supporters, although their roles were somewhat less prominent.

There's no recreated footage in this film. We see interviews with many people, especially Wolfson and Bonauto and we see important meetings, conferences, and strategy sessions, which were filmed on the spot, and then used in the movie.

I think it's important for any interested person--straight or in the LGBTQ community--to see this film and learn from it. What started as a (literally) impossible dream, ended in a historical victory. However, this victory didn't come from hoping and wishing. It came from hard, strategic efforts on the part of many, many people.

We saw this movie at Rochester's excellent Little Theatre. Any movie works better on the large screen, but this one will work almost as well on the small screen. Find it and see it!

One of those disgusting and perverted things that causes enormous damage to our children. The far left side schooling that serves only for destroying the institution of family and youth as we know! The results of these perversions are visible all around us!

Don't let THEM to brainwash your kids!!!

KEEP THEM SAFE!!!

One of those disgusting and perverted things that causes enormous damage to our children. The far left side schooling that serves only for destroying the institution of family and youth as we know! The results of these perversions are visible all around us! KEEP YOUR CHILDREN SAFE!

Even if you don't love docs, and even if you aren't involved in gay issues - see this film. It's really a great ride, and super inspirational. Some friends took us to see it at the Savannah Film Festival. It definitely wasn't my first choice of a film to see. I wanted to see a fiction film, to be honest. But boy am I glad we went! As they say in the old commercials, "I laughed, I cried." I know it went on to win best documentary at Savannah. I hope it wins a lot more awards. Deserves it.

I saw F2M in December as a special showing/fundraiser and it was riveting. The theater was full with people needing a reminder that change is possible and change will happen. The documentary felt like a slow, unfolding mystery. Even though I knew how it would end, though, the way it got there was the real story. Like All The President's Men, this was the story of how a story became a story.

The pacing was perfect: detailed, personal, telling multiple stories at once. Really fun to watch and such an important reminder of what people can do despite a political climate. Love can win.