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This page is maintained by Professor Chai Feldblum. Materials from scholars and professionals in various fields provide the intellectual framework for much of the MVP’s work.
News and Events
Letters to the Editor Debate on "Gay-Rights vs. Religious Rights"
FEBRUARY 17, 2009 • Chicago TribuneResponding to a letter about a proposal in Illinois by Rep. Greg Harris to legalize same-sex marriage and its effects on religious freedoms, Chai sets the record straight about her position and the challenges of shifting moral values in society.
Read Chai's Letter to the Editor online and add your comments
Panel Discussion: Same-Sex Marriage and Religious Liberty
JANUARY 26, 2009 • Georgetown University Law CenterTwo Georgetown Law student groups, the Federalist Society and Outlaw, hosted a panel discussion among legal scholars on whether recognition of same sex couples through civil marriage or civil unions places inappropriate burdens on religious liberty and if so, how such burdens should be addressed. Panelists included: Chai Feldblum of Georgetown Law, Robin Wilson of Washington & Lee University Law School, Nan Hunter of Georgetown Law, and Jordan Lorence of the Alliance Defense Fund.
Watch or listen online (please fast forward 9 minutes to find the beginning of the discussion)
Read cases discussed at the panel:
Ocean Grove case (NJ)
Past Events
Talk of the Nation: Gay Rights Law Faces Legal, Religious Challenges
JUNE 16, 2008 • National Public RadioNPR's religion correspondent Barbara Bradley Hagerty talks with Chai Feldblum and Jordan Lorence, senior counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, about the battle between equal rights and American ideals of religious freedom.
RIGHTS & WRONGS: Morality in the Gay Marriage Debate
FEBRUARY 28, 2007 • Georgetown University Law Center, Washington DCChai moderated a round table discussion with the panelists and special guests.
The Battle Over Marriage
February 7, 2007 • Georgetown University Law Center, Washington DCThe Moral Values Project cosponsors a panel discussion at Georgetown University Law Center on morality and marriage for same-sex couples, featuring moderator Professor Randy Barnett and panelists Matt Coles from the ACLU, Marty Rouse from the Human Rights Campaign, Rena Lindevaldsen from Liberty Counsel, and Peter Sprigg from the Family Research Council.
Chai’s Interview about the Moral Values Project on XM Radio
on The Agenda from the Human Right’s Campaign
February 5, 2007 • XM Satelite Radio Channel 200
Chai sat down and talked with The Agenda — a live talk radio show hosted by Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese.
A Conversation With…Chai Feldblum
Georgetown Law Professor, Founder of the Moral Values Project
November 27, 2006, 6:00PM • Georgetown University Law Center, Washington DC
Chai delivered an address describing the Moral Values Project. In it, she discussed why moral debate in politics is good and why advocates for LGBT rights and gender equality should make their case in moral terms.
The Gay Marriage Debate: A Conversation on the Implications of Same-Sex Marriage
Monday, October 30, 2006 • Louis Finkelstein Institute, The Jewish Theological Seminary, New York
Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlington Warmly Invites You to A Conversation With Professor Chai Feldblum
Tuesday, October 17, 2006"The Virginia Marriage Amendment: What It Does and Why It’s Morally Wrong"
National Coming Out Day
Wednesday, October 11, 2006Learn about resources for the LGBT community and its supporters
Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people embrace and enact positive visions of morality in their everyday lives.
When advocates for LGBT equality have avoided moral arguments in their anti-discrimination work in the past, their choice has been either strategic or principled: some advocates believe that talking about “equality” rather than “morality” is more likely to convince voters, judges and legislators, while others sincerely believe that moral questions, especially religiously-inflected ones, should be left to individuals rather than electorates.
The Moral Values Project (MVP) respects, but rejects, the claim that forthright moral debate deserves only a peripheral place in politics. We seriously question the accepted wisdom that engaging in moral debate would be a poor strategic choice in achieving LGBT equality. And in everything we do, our commitment to the separation of church and state is no less firm than our appreciation for the equal worth of secular moralities and faith-based moralities.
By coming out, by getting married or by building alternative communities, LGBT individuals are making public moral statements – about honesty, about love, about family. The Moral Values Project is designed to make those everyday moral statements more explicit as political claims, and to gauge the extent to which it is strategically worthwhile to do so.
Congressional Briefing on Abstinence-Only Education
Tuesday, June 13, 2006 • Capitol Building, Washington DC
John Santelli, MD, MPH, Department of Population and Family Health, Columbia University
SIECUS Public Policy Office Fact Sheet
Is the Federal Marriage Amendment Consistent with Federalism and Democratic Values?
Monday, June 5, 2006 • Center for American Progress
Gay Marriage: Evidence from Europe?
POLICY FORUM
Thursday, June 1, 2006 • The Cato Institute, Washington, DC
William N. Eskridge Jr., Professor of Law, Yale University, Coauthor, Gay Marriage: For Better or For Worse? What We've Learned from the Evidence (Oxford University Press, 2006) and Maggie Gallagher, President, Institute for Marriage and Public Policy, Coauthor, The Case for Marriage.
As the Senate prepares to debate the Federal Marriage Amendment many scholars are looking at evidence from Scandinavia, Belgium, and the Netherlands. Some observers have argued that experience in those countries shows that legal recognition of same-sex unions leads to a decline in traditional marriage and marital child rearing. A new book challenges that analysis. William N. Eskridge Jr. and Darren R. Spedale find that the argument often advanced is inconsistent with the Scandinavian evidence. In no way, they write, has marriage in the Nordic countries suffered from legalization of same-sex unions. A close look at the data suggests that the sanctioning of gay marriage in the United States would neither undermine marriage as an institution nor harm the well-being of children. Maggie Gallagher argues that the move toward gay marriage in Europe is part of a larger marriage crisis, including a powerful trend away from marriage as a social norm for childbearing and child rearing.
Listen to the event in Real Audio (audio only)
Download a podcast of the event (MP3)
Kenji Yoshino
Tuesday, February 14, 2006 • Georgetown University Law Center, Washington, DC
MVP co-sponsored a talk at Georgetown Law by Kenji Yoshino of Yale Law School on his book Covering. Yoshino is a leading expert on constitutional law, anti-discrimination law, and law and literature. Drawing on his own experiences as an Asian-American and gay man, Yoshino calls for a new way of thinking about civil rights, authenticity, and identity in his new book. Publishers Weekly says about "Covering", "seldom has a work of such careful intellectual rigor and fairness been so deeply touching." It was recently featured in The New York Times Magazine.
World Pride 2006
Jerusalem
Visit the WorldPride 2006 web site - 1000 religious leaders endorse Jerusalem WorldPride
- Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum answers Three Questions about WorldPride in Time Out
- Why WorldPride 2006 matters to MVP