Evan Wolfson, I have five questions for you

Categorized | Life

Evan Wolfson, I have five questions for you

Posted on07 September 2008. Tags: Evan Wolfson, Five Questions, Freedom to Marry, Gay Marriage, Interviews, Wikinews

When Time Magazine named Evan Wolfson as one of the 100 most influential people in the world, it was for making an impossible idea—marriage for gay people—conceivable. Wolfson is the Martin Luther King Jr. of the modern fight for the marriage right. There is no state or legal battle that does not involve Wolfson’s work, either directly or through his unavoidable precedents.

Wolfson’s organization, Freedom to Marry, is completely geared up to fight the bigots who are trying to overturn California’s marriage law. They need your donations. Now.

So Mr. Wolfson, one of the most influential people in the world, I have five questions for you:

Q. What is one thing you think every American should know?

A. How fragile values we treasure as Americans are — personal freedom, the separation of church and state that assures religious as well as personal freedom, constitutional checks and balances. These things can be lost, and it is reckless to play with fire near them, as some in our country do.

Q. If you had the option to have been born another nationality than your current one, which nationality would you choose?

A. Israeli — though it would be wonderful to have European citizenship, too

Q. What is one misconception people have about you?

A. That I wouldn’t like to serve in Congress.

Q. Is there anyone’s death, either in your life or in popular culture, whose passing you were surprised by how profoundly it affected you?

A. For over ten years now, I’ve carried in my wallet a clipping of the New York Times headline from an obituary that appeared in 1997; I always thought I’d like it for my own. It reads: “Bao Dai, 83, of Vietnam; Emperor and Bon Vivant.”

Q. In life we often have goals that we feel as if would just die if we don’t reach them. Sometimes we reach them, sometimes we don’t. The question is, have you ever worked to fulfill a goal, only to find that once you achieved it, the experience was a let down? It meant something to you when you did not have it. Then you obtained it and, after the initial excitement, you thought to yourself, “Is that all there is?” Have you ever had an experience like that?

A. Yes, in college I worked to become Speaker of the Political Union. I was proud to be elected, did some great projects with close friends (who remain friends to this day), and enjoyed serving. But I remember the feeling of discovery that far from being the pinnacle I had imagined, the actual office meant less to me than the experience and friendships themselves.

FIVE QUESTIONS FOR PEOPLE – A SERIES

JIMMY WALES – Citizen of the world, sage to millions of editors of Wikipedia, which he founded…I have five questions for you.
BILLY NAME – Famous Warhol live-in photographer; silverized the Factory; shot the cover of the Velvet Underground’s eponymous album; iconic portraits of Lou Reed and Edie Sedgwick…I have five questions for you.