NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO – In partnership with acclaimed storytelling Web site Cowbird, Marriage Equality USA (MEUSA) today announced Getting to “I Do”: Our Journeys to Marriage Equality, a project to collect and share multimedia-rich personal stories about relationships, family, marriage, advocacy, and equality as a means to educate and continue to change hearts and minds in favor of the freedom to marry. Stories as well as accompanying photos and audio can be submitted starting today by anyone by visiting www.marriageequality.org/gettingtoido.
“We’ve learned in state after state that hearts and minds change in favor of marriage equality when same-sex couples and their families share their own stories, their hopes and dreams, and their love and commitment with their families, friends, neighbors, colleagues, and communities,” said Brian Silva, MEUSA Executive Director. “The increasing support for marriage equality is even more pronounced when allies and supporters share their own journeys to embracing and supporting the freedom to marry.”
Marriage Equality USA’s strength lies precisely in the collection and dissemination of such stories. MEUSA long has empowered, trained, and encouraged local and national supporters throughout the country to share their personal stories, engage with local media, participate in phone banks and canvassing, take advantage of public speaking opportunities, and provide local education to their local communities.
“We’re very excited to be partnering with Cowbird, already known for its exciting multimedia projects with NPR and National Geographic, for our Getting to ‘I Do’ project,” said Thom Watson, MEUSA Social Media Manager and the Project Lead. “Cowbird presents an easy-to-use online tool for our marriage equality supporters around the country to combine photos, audio, and text in order to create and share a wide range of personal marriage equality journeys and stories in their own words and images.“
While the full gallery of stories will be available online via Cowbird, Marriage Equality USA will also feature a curated collection of highlighted stories on its own website and blog, across its social media platforms, and as a critical component of its mission to secure legally recognized civil marriage equality for all, without regard to sexual orientation or gender identity, at the state and federal level.
