New Video Featuring Edie Windsor and Roberta Kaplan Highlights Importance of “The People’s Brief"

Dozens of high-profile supporters have now signed on to the brief, which gives every American a chance to voice support for marriage equality to the U.S. Supreme Court

WASHINGTON – Today, the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest civil rights organization, released a new video featuring leading civil rights lawyer Roberta Kaplan and her trailblazing client Edie Windsor, urging every marriage equality supporter to read and sign “The People’s Brief.” Together, Windsor and Kaplan successfully challenged the discriminatory Defense of Marriage Act at the Supreme Court in 2013, and now they have joined with HRC to give every American the ability to help make history for marriage equality.

Last week, HRC and Kaplan launched The People’s Brief, which any American can read and sign before it is filed with the U.S. Supreme Court before the justices hear a set of marriage equality cases this April. Today, just over one week after its debut, The People’s Brief has more than 100,000 signatures from fair-minded Americans who support full, nationwide marriage equality.

Watch the video here via YouTube, and download it here.

“The point of this brief is to really convey that very strong support [for marriage equality] to the court – to explain the sea change that has occurred. And to try to explain to the court why that sea change has occurred,” says Supreme Court litigator Roberta Kaplan in the video.

“Our culture and our history is founded on the principle that every American matters,” adds Kaplan. “For anyone who’s worried that their lone voice won’t make a difference: just look at the woman sitting next to me,” Kaplan says as she gestures toward Edie.

Windsor was the first person to sign the brief, and a number of high-profile advocates for marriage equality have signed on and offered their support on social media, including Ellen DeGeneres, Mario Batali, Matt Bomer, Billy Porter, Bree Turner, Perez Hilton, Jason Collins, Landon Donovan, Carla Hall, Jeffrey Tambor, Donna Brazile, Cory Booker, Robbie Rogers and Maria Bello. See a full list here.

Any American can read and sign the brief through February 27; the brief will be formally submitted to the Supreme Court in advance of the March 6th deadline for such submissions.

The Human Rights Campaign is America’s largest civil rights organization working to achieve lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality. HRC envisions a world where LGBT people are embraced as full members of society at home, at work and in every community.

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