A RIGHT TO MARRY? SAME-SEX MARRIAGE AND THE CONSTITUTION
TUESDAY, October 20, 2009, 6:30 p.m.
Free. Reservations required. Please call 215.409.6700 or order online.
F.M. Kirby Auditorium
Annenberg Center for Education and Outreach
National Constitution Center
Independence Mall
525 Arch Street
Philadelphia, PA
With a potentially precedent-setting legal challenge to California's Proposition 8 working its way through the federal court system, the National Constitution Center presents a timely program on the issue of same-sex marriage. Last November California voters approved the Proposition 8 ballot measure, amending their state Constitution to ban marriages between same-sex couples. A lawsuit filed on behalf of two gay couples wishing to marry has attracted national attention. David Boies, one of the leading lawyers in the case, is joined in a conversation by Keith Boykin, Maggie Gallagher and Glenn Stanton. Margot Adler moderates.
David Boies founder and chairman of Boies, Schiller & Flexner LLP, named "Lawyer of the Year," by the National Law Journal and runner-up for "Person of the Year," by Time Magazine, served as Special Trial Counsel for the United States Department of Justice in its successful antitrust suit against Microsoft, and from 1991 to 1993 and was counsel to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation in efforts to recover losses for failed savings and loan associations. The author of numerous publications, he has taught at New York University Law School and Cardozo Law School.
Keith Boykin is the editor of The Daily Voice online news site, a CNBC contributor, a BET TV host, and a New York Times best-selling author. He served in the White House as a special assistant to President Bill Clinton. Each of Boykin's three books has been nominated for a Lambda Literary Award, including his most recent book, Beyond the Down Low: Sex, Lies and Denial in Black America. Boykin won the Lambda Literary Award for his second book, Respecting The Soul. He is an associate producer of the 2007 feature film Dirty Laundry and is working on his fourth book.
Maggie Gallagher is president of the National Organization for Marriage, which the Washington Post recently called the "pre-eminent organization dedicated to preventing the legalization of same-sex marriage." NOM is widely credited with getting Proposition 8 on the ballot. She is also president of the Institute for Marriage and Public Policy (www.marriagedebate.com). She is a nationally syndicated columnist, the author of three books on marriage, including The Case for Marriage: Why Married People are Happier, Healthier, and Better-Off Financially.
Glenn T. Stanton is the Director for Family Formation Studies at Focus on the Family in Colorado Springs as well as directing a major research project on international family formation trends at l’Institut du Mariage et de la Famille Canada. He served the George W. Bush administration for many years as a consultant on increasing fatherhood involvement in the Head Start program. Stanton is a founding signatory of the new Hampton Proclamation, a cooperative effort of diverse leaders launched by the National Center on African American Marriages and Parenting at Hampton University with the goal of strengthening marriage and married parenting in the African-American community. He has contributed to eight books and is the author of three including Why Marriage Matters: Reasons to Believe in Marriage in Postmodern Society and Marriage on Trial: The Case Against Same-Sex Marriage and Parenting. He is currently completing Beyond Pink and Blue about the significance of sex-difference in child development and parenting.
Margot Adler moderates. She is a National Public Radio correspondent based in NPR's New York Bureau. Her reports can be heard regularly on All Things Considered, Morning Edition and Weekend Edition. She has been with NPR since 1979 and worked in radio journalism for 40 years. Until June 2008, she hosted NPR's Justice Talking, a weekly show that explored the cases and controversies that come before our nation's courts. Adler is the author of two books, Drawing Down the Moon, a study of contemporary nature religions and Heretic's Heart, a 1960s memoir. In 1982 she was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University.
The Knight Constitutional Conversation
series has been generously underwritten by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation promotes excellence in journalism worldwide and invests in the vitality of the U.S. communities where the Knight brothers owned newspapers. Knight Foundation focuses on projects with the potential to create transformational change. For more, visit www.knightfoundation.org.
Parking for this event is available for $7.00 at the National Constitution Center garage located at the rear of the building on Race Street between 5th and 6th Streets. Parking availability is subject to change, so please call the Constitution Center on the day of the program or check our web site for more information. Please also see our directions by public transportation.
For reservations please call 215.409.6700 or order online. Programs at the National Constitution Center begin promptly and latecomers may not be admitted to the program. Please note that this program is subject to change.