The JustMarried Project

Through LOVE,

a once-silenced people became an unstoppable community.

Two decades of research. Seven decades of courage. One moment to restore the inheritance withheld for generations—and continue the journey that changed the world.

At a moment when queer history is being challenged, removed, and rewritten, we are doing something simple—and urgent:

making our courageous and triumphant journey to belonging impossible to erase.

We are building a permanent home for an evolving story—one that helped secure two of the most profound civil rights victories of this century:

The decriminalization of our lives.
Lawrence v. Texas

The freedom to marry.
Obergefell v. Hodges

That is the vision and mission behind The JustMarried Project: a multimedia, community-driven act of remembrance, restoration, protection, and continuation.

Rooted in more than two decades of research and built from over seventy years of lived experience, the project chronicles couples, families, advocates, and allies whose courage transformed fear into fierce and helped advance the freedom to love around the world.

That work became LOVE: The Heroic Stories of Marriage Equality (Rizzoli, 2025).

Not just a book—but a record of courage and triumph. A reminder of what it took to live openly without harm, and to be protected under the law.

What began as a collection of stories about marriage equality became a story about how a once-silenced people became an unstoppable community—moving millions from fear to understanding, from division to compassion, and from silence to belonging. And they did it all for LOVE.

A story of countless people who were taught they were alone. People once hidden from one another who, through courage, visibility, and the simple act of telling the truth about their lives, found one another across towns, countries, cultures, and continents.

They didn’t just win in courts. They won in living rooms.

Every story in this collection

is someone else’s roadmap for tomorrow.

Oprah Daily named LOVE one of six books of 2025 that “illuminated a path forward.”

It provides undeniable proof that love can transform hearts, reshape laws, expand freedom, and create belonging.

It is also a living record of what diversity, equity, and inclusion were designed to achieve.

The stories span races, faiths, ages, genders, gender identities, geographies, and economic backgrounds. They tell the story of people who were excluded, marginalized, misunderstood, and criminalized, yet found the courage to live and love openly—and, in doing so, helped create one of the most extraordinary movements for human dignity in modern history.

BUILDING THE FUTURE

Founding donors will be recognized as the philanthropic leaders whose early investment helped restore this inheritance and carry it forward to generations still to come.

The book is only the beginning.

LOVE lays the foundation, introducing readers to the people who transformed fear into freedom and inviting them to fall in love with LOVE itself.

The From Fear to Fierce campaign places LOVE—a mini-library of courage—in community centers, youth shelters, queer clubs, libraries, offices, coffee shops, and homes across America at no cost to recipients, ensuring these stories reach the people who need them most.

Our serialized visual podcast, LOVE: From Fear to Fierce, expands the story through more than forty immersive episodes. Narrated by people connected to the history, each episode explores the eras, lives, relationships, victories, setbacks, and lessons that continue to shape our community today.

The JustMarried Project’s limited documentary series, LOVE, brings these stories to broader audiences through cinematic, character-driven storytelling. While celebrating the extraordinary journey toward the freedom to live and love openly, it also explores how childhood experiences of isolation, rejection, acceptance, and belonging shaped and inspired the people who later transformed history.

"Each of us can make a difference.

Together, we can make change happen even in dark times.

And it begins with an act of love."

—Evan Wolfson

WAYS TO BUILD THE FUTURE TOGETHER

Expanding National Educational and Community Distribution

Whether a foundation chooses to place books into communities, preserve stories through immersive media, or help bring this landmark documentary series to life, every investment advances the same mission. The work is further amplified by participants featured in the project, national influencers, and community leaders.

Community Distribution

$25,000

Create 500 new spaces of belonging through the campaign. Each copy placed becomes a mini-library of queer courage and triumph—a resource that can be opened, shared, displayed, revisited, and passed from one person to another for years to come.

A distribution network is already in place through Family Equality, Free Mom Hugs, SAGE, Lambda Legal, and CenterLink, whose network includes hundreds of LGBTQ+ community centers and affiliated organizations nationwide. Funding underwrites the national distribution and fulfillment of thousands of books already reserved by partner organizations, printed, and scheduled to ship in early fall.

Restoration, Preservation, and Creation

$50,000 or $100,000+
Help produce two, four, or more episodes of the serialized visual podcast, LOVE: From Fear to Fierce, bringing these remarkable stories to life through immersive audio and visual storytelling.

Cinematic Legacy
$250,000+

Help produce an episode of LOVE, The JustMarried Project’s limited documentary series.

Leadership investments will help complete the full documentary series, expand educational partnerships, and make this LOVE story available to audiences around the world.

WHY THIS MATTERS NOW

Today, these stories carry new generational power.

They no longer simply help us imagine a more just world; they show us how to protect the rights we have gained—and how to survive, persevere, and win with LOVE.

These stories—and the lessons they carry—remain among the most powerful tools we have for meeting the moment before us:

Rights once secured are being questioned again.

According to Gallup, moral acceptance of gay and lesbian relationships has fallen nine percentage points from its 2022 high.

Funding for LGBTQ+ and diversity-focused work is under growing pressure.

Queer books, histories, and lived experiences continue to be challenged, restricted, and removed from libraries and classrooms.

Our task now is to place these stories directly into people’s hands—so they can inspire the next Edie Windsor or Malcolm Kenyatta at exactly the moment new leaders are needed most.

The stories are written. The books are printed. The partners are waiting.

We would be honored to partner with you at a moment when communities across the country are searching not simply for celebration, but for connection, truth, belonging—and LOVE.

With gratitude,

Frankie Frankeny

Creator, The JustMarried Project

Author, LOVE: The Heroic Stories of Marriage Equality

Jim Obergefell

Executive Producer, The JustMarried Project

Lead Plaintiff, Obergefell v. Hodges