Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed called on state officials to pursue legislation recognizing same-sex marriages performed out of state, a key first step in what he described as a long road to marriage equality in Georgia.
Speaking at the kick-off for a $1 million campaign to promote marriage equality across the South, Reed said he is also working to remove the state’s constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.
“I’m prepared to wear as many hats as it takes to end marriage discrimination at all levels of government and particularly in Georgia,” Reed said to a packed room at the Southerners for the Freedom to Marry event. “… No gay person should be prevented from marrying the person they love and protecting their family in the state they call home.”
Reed spoke Monday alongside Evan Wolfson, the founder of advocacy organization Freedom to Marry, and a host of local advocates and families. Wolfson said the organization is armed with $1 million to promote same-sex marriage across the region with events, social media efforts, canvassing and potential advertisements on radio or television.
“For too long, the conversation has come from other parts of the country that have moved forward faster,” Wolfson said. “Now in the South there is great determination on the part of many other people, including non-gay people here, who understand now is the time for the South to speak up and for voices to be heard.”
“For too long, the conversation has come from other parts of the country that have moved forward faster,” Wolfson said. “There is great determination on the part of many other people, including non-gay people here, who understand now is the time for the South to speak up and for voices to be heard.”
Among them is Decatur couple Linda Ellis and the Rev. Lesley Brogan, who spoke at the event with their two sons, John and Sam. The couple, who held a commitment ceremony in 1991, called for Georgia to recognize their relationship as equal to heterosexual couples.
“If you ask (our sons) they would tell you we are just like any other old married couple,” Ellis said. “They would tell you that, but the reality is it’s not true, not yet. And we’re ready for it to be.”
U.S. Rep. John Lewis, speaking in a video broadcast during the event, said he sees the right to marry as a civil rights issue.
“You can’t have rights for one section of the population … and not for everybody,” said Lewis, a longtime proponent of same-sex marriage. “I see marriage equality as a necessary step in completing … what Martin Luther King Jr. called the beloved community where we lay down the burden of prejudice.”
Reed announced his support of same-sex marriage in late 2012, about seven months after President Barack Obama did the same. The mayor previously advocated for civil unions, but said Monday he was wrong.
He credits his father, Junius Reed, Chief of Staff Candace Byrd and former aide Reese McCranie for his evolving views.
“I was slow moving from recognizing civil unions to marriage equality,” Reed said. “My grandfather was a minister and I grew up in a household that was pretty religious and I consider myself pretty religious and I had some struggles.”
The mayor said he had to get his “own house in order” on the topic.
“And once I did, I was ready to join the fight,” he said.
The mayor recognized an uphill climb on the issue in Georgia, a largely conservative state, and said “you have to be realistic about what you can get done.”
The state legislature is currently eying a pair of bills purporting to protect religious freedoms that others say protects people who oppose gay marriage from being sued for refusing service to gay couples.
“The fact of the matter is, conservatives are ruling the day, but think of where we’ve come in 10 years,” Reed said.
“I think the folks on the other side of those votes are on the wrong side of history.”
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