When Evan Wolfson bought his Greenwich Village apartment in 1996, he had barely enough time to move in before catching a plane to Hawaii to serve as co-counsel on Baehr v Miike. That case is now considered a watershed in the marriage equality movement, of which the charismatic lawyer is considered the prime architect. It was the first time a court ruled that excluding gay and lesbian couples from marriage was discrimination. It was also the catalyst in bringing about the discriminatory Defense of Marriage Act, which was struck down by the Supreme Court in 2013 — Wolfson’s campaign, Freedom to Marry, played an instrumental role.
埃文?沃夫森(Evan Wolfson)1996年買下紐約格林尼治村(Greenwich Village)的公寓房后，還沒等搬入就匆匆搭機前往夏威夷，擔任Baehr v Miike同性婚姻案件的協理律師。該案件如今被視作婚姻平權運動的分水嶺，而他這位魅力十足的律師則被譽為平權運動的“總設計師”。這是美國法院首次做出排斥同性戀者的婚姻為歧視的裁決。該案進而導致歧視同性戀者的《婚姻保護法》（Defense of Marriage Act，將婚姻定義為“一男一女的結合”）出臺。美國最高法院則于2013年判定《婚姻保護法》違憲————而沃夫森發起的非政府組織“婚姻自由”組織在其中扮演了重要角色。