Freedom to Marry

Each year, the Supreme Court makes decisions on various cases that can sometimes change the lives of millions of Americans. In 2015, they did just that. News 25’s Tanner Stewart takes a closer look inside the freedom to marry.
It has been two years since the U.S. Supreme Court made the decision to legalize same-sex marriage. Today, residents on the Gulf Coast are celebrating that ruling in a special way. Podcast Producer Jordan-Marie Smith said, “This is actually something that’s coming out of the Deep South. It’s coming out of a place that may have had closed doors to LGBTQ people and we are welcoming those people.”
‘One Night Out’ is an event hosted by the Sun Herald and the Out Here in America podcast. The event sheds light on the LGBTQ community in the United States by screening the “Freedom to Marry,” a documentary directed by Eddie Rosenstein which highlights a story of a movement that transformed the nation. “Around the time I was fishing for my next project, the Supreme Court said they would take this case because I’ve been following Evans career for decades, I realized now it is the time to tell this story because this is a chance for so many people’s lives to change for the better,” said Rosenstein.
It wasn’t just residents of Ocean Springs at the screening. There were people from all around the nation watching what critics are calling a ground breaking documentary. Freedom to Marry President Evan Wolfson said, “There have been showings and screenings and panels and discussions all around the country and really all around the world, but this is the first in Mississippi.”
Since the landmark decision, more than half a million same sex couples have legally married in the U.S. in what some people hope will even make more noise.