Book + Serialized Podcast + Global Substack + Docuseries
"LOVE illuminates a path forward" Oprah Daily
FOR IMMEDIATE CONSIDERATION. NEW YORK / NATIONAL
Contact:
Sid Eastman
Sid@GoodDoxie.com
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As Queer History Is Erased and Equality Is Threatened, the JustMarried Project Leads With LOVE
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Oprah Daily calls LOVE one of its six books of 2025 that “illuminate a path forward.”
At a moment when queer history is being banned from classrooms, books are being pulled from shelves, and marriage equality is once again under direct legal threat, the JustMarried Project leads with LOVE. Created by photographer and author Frankie Frankeny, the JustMarried Project’s broader mission is to preserve, protect, and widely share the stories of love that reshape law, culture, and belonging itself for the queer community.
LOVE: The Heroic Stories of Marriage Equality anchors the project as the culmination of more than twenty years of research and documentation, spanning more than seventy years of couples, activists, and allies whose lives helped secure one of the most significant civil rights victories of the twenty-first century—revealing how decades of courage and love transcended prejudice, reshaped the law, and captured both the compassion of the courts and the conscience of a nation. LOVE naturally unfolds as the shared journey of those who came out across decades—to live openly, with the dignity and belonging that comes from loving freely and legally.
“Today, we are beyond reflection; we are at a collision point,” Frankeny says, “between progress we fought so hard to secure and the many rights now openly being challenged. This is the very time our community needs these triumphant stories, past and present, that remind us who we are, what we’ve endured, and why LOVE is what makes us unstoppable.”
The JustMarried Project’s contributors include Frankie Frankeny, the project’s creator, who researched and documented these stories for more than two decades; Jim Obergefell, whose love story led to nationwide marriage equality; and Evan Wolfson, architect of the legal strategy that made it possible. John Casey, former senior editor and now columnist at The Advocate, Raw Story and The Daily Beast, contributed some of the book’s most vital stories, drawing on decades of frontline reporting on queer lives, politics, and culture. Informed by Marc Solomon’s lessons from the marriage equality movement and framed by forewords from Obergefell and Wolfson, LOVE stands as both a historical record and a moral roadmap.
Across the United States, queer stories are being systematically erased. According to PEN America, nearly 23,000 book bans have been recorded in U.S. public schools since 2021—an unprecedented surge driven by coordinated political efforts, including gag orders, intimidation bills, and punitive policies designed to silence educators and suppress free expression.
“These efforts disproportionately target stories about race, gender, American history, and queer identities—the very stories documented in LOVE,” says Obergefell.
In an environment where erasing stories has become a strategy for reshaping rights, queer history is not simply being debated—it is being systematically removed. And when stories disappear, legal protections soon follow. “When states are openly asking the Supreme Court to undo marriage equality, when justices signal a willingness to reconsider our most basic right to love, and when trans people are being pushed to uproot their lives simply to stay safe, the power of our stories becomes unmistakable,” continues Obergefell.
“The stories gathered in LOVE and across the JustMarried Project carry a newfound, unprecedented generational power—one that gives us the strength and tools to protect visibility, dignity, and belonging, and reminds us how fiercely we fought to build what must now be fiercely defended,” Frankeny continues. “One need only look at Renee and Becca Good’s story to see how marriage equality made our love recognizable to the world, allowing both our joy and our grief to be honored—without qualification—by those outside our community. Without question, this is what we must protect.”
From Fear to Fierce: A National Response
In response, the JustMarried Project is launching From Fear to Fierce, a national campaign placing LOVE—at no cost—into LGBTQ+ community centers, youth spaces, senior centers, and queer‑loving coffee tables across the country, in partnership with organizations including Lambda Legal, Family Equality, SAGE, Free Mom Hugs, and CenterLink.
“Our stories are armor,” Frankeny says. “And they hold what those trying to erase us fear most: our community’s long-cultivated power to turn fear into fierce.”
The campaign is amplified by LOVE & PRIDE, a global streaming storytelling special hosted by Carson Kressley, premiering February 14 and streaming through February 28, celebrating who we are, what we’ve endured, and why LOVE is what makes us unstoppable.
Frankie Frankeny, Jim Obergefell, Evan Wolfson, and John Casey are available for interviews.
Jamie Lee Curtis: “ I am excited for others, through this book, to bear witness to this powerful, life-changing combining of love. A MUST HAVE for ALL!”
Gavin Newsom, Governor of California: “This book honors seven decades of courage, love, and determination by the LGBTQ+ community. These stories are a powerful and triumphant roadmap for future generations to protect marriage equality.”
Judith Kasen-Windsor: “Like the famous quote from my wife, Edie Windsor, ‘Don’t postpone joy,’ this ‘joyous’ book is filled with glorious LGBTQ+ love stories through the ages.”
Richard Hodges, respondent, Obergefell v. Hodges: “I’ve never been happier to lose something. This beautiful book celebrates the many heroes who shared their stories and, as a result, changed hearts, minds, and our nation.”
Todd Sears, Founder & CEO, Out Leadership: “The JustMarried Project reminds us that we deserve to love openly, have the families we dream of, and live fearlessly as our true selves.”
Sara Cunningham, Founder, Free Mom Hugs: “Belonging is sacred—and too often denied. LOVE captures the LGBTQ+ community’s bold journey to reclaim it.”
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Review Materials:
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E-Galley/PDF (For reference only – no images may be used for press purposes.)
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