Tim Bostic, a teacher from Norfolk, VA, talks about why he and his partner of 25 years want to get married.

On Thursday, January 30, the Federal District Court of Eastern Virginia will hold its first hearing in the Bostic case for marriage equality.

The newly elected attorney general of Virginia, Mark Herring, just announced that he will not defend the state’s ban on marriage for gay and lesbian couples. He just filed a brief with the court and officially joined AFER’s side of the case.

AFER is making the case that marriage bans like the one in Virginia cause direct harm to gay and lesbian couples and the children they are raising, and there is no reason to deny these loving couples the equality and freedom they are guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.

As an investment in AFER’s work, our good friends Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Justin Mikita and their organization, Tie The Knot, will TRIPLE your donation today, up to $25,000.

2013 was a historic year for marriage equality. AFER took our case against Prop. 8 to the U.S. Supreme Court. And we won. But our work continues.

When you purchase a Tie The Knot bow tie, skinny tie, or cuff links, a portion of the proceeds supports AFER and our federal court case for marriage equality.

Carol Schall was helping her teenage daughter renew her passport when a postal worker filling out the paperwork learned that Schall’s same-sex partner was the girl’s birth mother.“You’re nothing,” Schall recalls the worker saying as she crossed her name off the form. Schall was stunned.

This fall, AFER announced that our marriage equality work is continuing in federal court. Now, our case in Virginia is at a critical juncture.

A solid majority—56%—of likely voters in Virginia supports marriage for gay and lesbian couples, according to a new survey.