为同性婚姻而战斗的斗士：沃夫森_美文

为同性婚姻而战斗的斗士：沃夫森

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年买下纽约格林尼治村(Greenwich Village)的公寓房后，还没等搬入就匆匆搭机前往夏威夷，担任Baehr v Miike同性婚姻案件的协理律师。该案件如今被视作婚姻平权运动的分水岭，而他这位魅力十足的律师则被誉为平权运动的“总设计师”。这是美国法院首次做出排斥同性恋者的婚姻为歧视的裁决。该案进而导致歧视同性恋者的《婚姻保护法》(Defense of Marriage Act，将婚姻定义为“一男一女的结合”)出台。美国最高法院则于2013年判定《婚姻保护法》违宪————而沃夫森发起的非政府组织“婚姻自由”组织在其中扮演了重要角色。

In the past two years, he’s helped win 65 state and federal court rulings. The Supreme Court is set to rule imminently on whether same-sex marriages deserve federal protection. In the past two years, he has also completely renovated his apartment, which he now shares with his husband, Cheng He, 40, who uses his PhD in molecular biology to consult for pharmaceutical and healthcare companies. When they met online in 2002, there was an “instant connection”, says Wolfson, and they’ve been together ever since, marrying in 2011 when New York joined a growing number of states to legalise same-sex marriage.