Evan Wolfson, founder and president of Freedom to Marry, a group which favors same-sex marriage in the U.S., on August 22 had a meeting with local students and audiences at the American Center in HCMC’s District 1.

Wolfson is in Vietnam to join the ongoing 5th Viet Pride Festival to promote visibility and awareness of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people. The event was held in Hanoi from August 6 to 21. A large scale bicycle ride and walk took place on Sunday in Hanoi with both locals and foreigners attending.

According to statistics provided by Wolfson, as of July 2016, same-sex couples have the freedom to marry in 22 countries on six continents, including the U.S., Canada, Mexico, the UK, Colombia, Brazil, Iceland and Sweden. More than one billion people now live in a freedom to marry country.

In 1983, Wolfson wrote his Harvard Law School thesis on gay people and the freedom to marry. During the 1990s he served as co-counsel in the historic Hawaii marriage case that launched the ongoing global movement for the freedom to marry, and has participated in numerous gay rights and HIV/AIDS cases.

Wolfson earned a B.A. in history from Yale College in 1978; served as a Peace Corps volunteer in a village in Togo, West Africa; and wrote the book, Why Marriage Matters: America, Equality, and Gay People’s Right to Marry, published by Simon & Schuster in July 2004. 

Citing his national leadership on marriage and his appearance before the U.S. Supreme Court in Boy Scouts of America v. James Dale, the National Law Journal in 2000 named Wolfson one of “the 100 most influential lawyers in America.”

In 2012, Wolfson received the Barnard Medal of Distinction alongside President Barack Obama. 

He now devotes his time to advising and assisting diverse movements and causes in the U.S. and around the world. Based in New York City, Wolfson has been named a Distinguished Visitor from Practice at Georgetown Law Center, where he teaches law and social change, and Senior Counsel at Dentons, the law firm with more than 125 offices in over 50 countries.

SGT