	Site Map \| search \| contact
	Because Freedom Can't Protect Itself

Home Issues Take Action Legal Support the ACLU

Home > Issues > GLBT

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEase

January 7, 2005

CONTACT:

Jack Van Valkenburgh

Executive Director

(208) 344-9750 ext. 203

jackvv@acluidaho.org

The Next Frontier In Civil Liberties:

The Freedom to Marry

What: The Next Frontier In Civil Liberties: The Freedom to Marry

Who:

-- Mary Li and Becky Kennedy, the first same-sex couple to obtain a legal marriage certificate in Oregon

-- Roey Thorpe, a pivotal leader in Oregon’s struggle for equal marriage rights for lesbians and gay men

Date: Saturday, January 22, 2005

Events Info: 5-7 pm Pre-event reception, RSVP by Jan. 19 - $50 per person

7:30 pm Public event at The Rose Room, 714 West Idaho

- $10 suggested donation (Students with I.D. admitted free)

Sponsor: The Amercian Civil Liberties Union of Idaho

RSVP: Pre-paid reservations to the pre-event reception must be made by January 19. Call 344-9750, ext. 204, or email ashipley@acluidaho.org

Described as the “wedding event of the year”, Mary Li and Becky Kennedy, the first same-sex couple to marry in Oregon, join Roey Thorpe, Executive Director of Basic Rights Oregon and a pivotal leader in the struggle to permit equal marriage rights for lesbians and gay men, addressing “The Next Frontier in Civil Liberties: The Freedom to Marry” on Saturday, January 22^nd, 2005 at 7:30 pm at the Rose Room, 714 West Idaho, Boise. Mary Li’s story is particularly powerful, as she is the daughter of a Chinese man who married a white American at a time when interracial marriages were prohibited in certain states, just as today same-sex marriages are prohibited in most states.

The Idaho legislature will be considering a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage at the time that Li, Kennedy, and Thorpe speak in Boise.

Li and Kennedy are the lead plaintiffs in the ACLU lawsuit seeking all of the legal protections of marriage. That case was argued before the Oregon Supreme Court on December 15 and a decision is now pending.

Editor – prior to January 17, please report the following:

A pre-event reception will be held that evening, January 22, from 5-7 pm at a beautiful private home (call 344-9750, ext. 204 for details, please make reservations by Jan. 19). The ACLU of Idaho will honor David Nevin and the law firm of Nevin, Benjamin & McKay for defending the First Amendment and Sami Omar Al-Hussayen. The ACLU will also honor 13 Moscow area attorneys who in February, 2003 (when Al-Hussayen was arrested in Moscow) gave their time on a moment’s notice to assist and counsel the many Muslim students at the University of Idaho who were interrogated by agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement division of the Department of Homeland Security. Attendees will also have an opportunity to get to know Li, Kennedy and Thorpe at the reception.

At the reception, Professor Elizabeth Brandt of the University of Idaho College of Law (and an ACLU of Idaho board member) will address the work of these attorneys.