Freedom to Marry’s Sean Eldridge on Marriage – Personal and Political

In an interview on Swirl Radio, Freedom to Marry Political Director Sean Eldridge spoke about the state of the marriage movement in America, as well as his own recent engagement to Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes.

Sean laid out Freedom to Marry's most immediate priorities for winning marriage. "We're concentrating on a handful of states this year that we think are in play – in particular, Maryland, Rhode Island, and New York," Sean said. "We think we have really good chances of passing marriage bills in their legislatures this year. Freedom to Marry and our state partners are all in in those states. We're on the ground doing the field work, the lobbying work, the public education work that's needed to finish the job."

Sean expressed hope that the law in New York will catch up in time for his own wedding, which is now in the works following a vacation that included an old-fashioned proposal. After his and Chris' holiday plans were delayed by the Christmastime blizzard in New York, they made it to Asia. "We finally got to Thailand after this nightmare storm, and we had a wonderful first day in the northern mountains," Sean recounted to Michelle Meow. "On New Year's Eve, which was that day, Chris in a very traditional manner got down on one knee and asked me if I would spend his life with him. And we'd been together for about five years, and I quickly said yes."

Sean also pointed at two polls from last year that found a majority of Americans support marriage for gay couples. Referring to Freedom to Marry's "Roadmap to Victory," he explained how growing that majority and winning more states will be helpful for federal cases that are challenging California's Proposition 8 and the so-called Defense of Marriage Act – because more progress will create an environment where judges feel comfortable doing the right thing.

"We just have to keep pushing on all sides to make this happen as quickly as possible," Sean said. "None of us are going to give up, none of us are going to go home – it's really important that anti-gay groups know that."

Listen to the interview by clicking on the file below: