Daniel Levison Interviews Evan Wolfson and Mary Bonauto on Marriage Equality in United States and Japan
Daniel Levison Interviews Evan Wolfson and Mary Bonauto on Marriage Equality in United States and Japan
In the Japanese publication Business + IT (ビジネス+IT), Morrison & Foerster partner, and board member of the Japan-based Non-Profit Organizations (NPO) Lawyers for LGBT & Allies Network, Daniel Levison, interviewed leading civil rights lawyers, Evan Wolfson, founder of Freedom to Marry and senior counsel at Dentons, and Mary Bonauto, Civil Rights Project director at GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders. They were both instrumental in achieving the landmark victory in the 2015 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, which paved the way for marriage equality in the United States, and they continue to blaze the trail for LGBTQ+ equality and other rights issues today.
During the interview, Evan and Mary discuss how they overcame the many challenges they faced during the long years fighting for marriage equality in the United States and share their insights on the strategies that helped them to achieve their goal.
They also discuss why marriage equality is important for business, and how the Japanese business community and the Japanese public at large have already shown their overwhelming support on the issue.
Evan and Mary note that a recent Sapporo District Court decision and certain local government measures acknowledge injustice inflicted by the lack of marriage equality and have provided some benefits. However, they conclude that although these developments are encouraging, more still needs to be done to make same sex marriage equality a reality in Japan.
Read the full interview.
Lawyers for LGBT & Allies Network (LLAN), is a non-profit organization that provides assistance to the legal community in Japan to promote a better understanding of LGBT and other sexual minorities and to eliminate discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Morrison & Foerster is a founding and active member of LLAN and Daniel Levison serves on its board of directors.
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