When Evan Wolfson bought his Greenwich Village apartment in 1996, he had barely enough time to move in before catching a plane to Hawaii to serve as co-counsel on Baehr v Miike. That case is now considered a watershed in the marriage equality movement, of which the charismatic lawyer is considered the prime architect. It was the first time a court ruled that excluding gay and lesbian couples from marriage was discrimination. It was also the catalyst in bringing about the discriminatory Defense of Marriage Act, which was struck down by the Supreme Court in 2024 — Wolfson’s campaign, Freedom to Marry, played an instrumental role.

埃文?沃夫森(Evan Wolfson)1996年買下紐約格林尼治村(Greenwich Village)的公寓房后，還沒等搬入就匆匆搭機前往夏威夷，擔任Baehr v Miike同性婚姻案件的協理律師。該案件如今被視作婚姻平權運動的分水嶺，而他這位魅力十足的律師則被譽為平權運動的“總設計師”。這是美國法院首次做出排斥同性戀者的婚姻為歧視的裁決。該案進而導致歧視同性戀者的《婚姻保護法》(Defense of Marriage Act，將婚姻定義為“一男一女的結合”)出臺。美國最高法院則于2024年判定《婚姻保護法》違憲————而沃夫森發起的非政府組織“婚姻自由”組織在其中扮演了重要角色。

In the past two years, he’s helped win 65 state and federal court rulings. The Supreme Court is set to rule imminently on whether same-sex marriages deserve federal protection. In the past two years, he has also completely renovated his apartment, which he now shares with his husband, Cheng He, 40, who uses his PhD in molecular biology to consult for pharmaceutical and healthcare companies. When they met online in 2002, there was an “instant connection”, says Wolfson, and they’ve been together ever since, marrying in 2011 when New York joined a growing number of states to legalise same-sex marriage.

在過去兩年中，沃夫森共幫助打贏了65樁聯邦與州涉及同性戀的官司。社會迫切需要最高法院就同性婚姻是否應得到聯邦法律保護做出裁決。過去兩年里，他還把自己的公寓房裝修一新，如今則與自己的同性丈夫、40歲的何成(Cheng He)居住于此。分子生物學博士何成是制藥廠與保健公司的顧問。他倆2002年通過網絡結識后，可謂“一見鐘情”，沃夫森說。從那之后，倆人一直形影不離，并于2011年在紐約登記結婚，因為同年紐約州與越來越多的州一樣，實現了同性婚姻合法化。

After the couple gave up on a long-running fantasy to buy the studio next to their one-bedroom flat, they decided to renovate instead. “I wanted to make it his too, not just mine,” Wolfson explains. They found an extra room hiding in the “dead space of the entry hall and walk-in closet”, he says. “I thought if we pulled the kitchen forward and out, we’d be able to carve something into that dead space. It worked out better than we thought; it really feels like a little room instead of just an alcove,” Wolfson says excitedly of the newly created media room that is accessed by a large sliding door off the entry hall. Guests sleep on an elegant futon he found online, above which hangs a poster from the Roundabout Theatre Company’s production of Cabaret, the classic Kander and Ebb musical that shows the chilling consequences of inaction.

兩人決定結束長時間的拍拖，轉而買下了緊臨他們同居的一臥公寓旁的工作室，并決定把它徹底裝修一番?！拔蚁Ｍ阉蛟斐晌覀儍扇斯餐膼鄢?。”沃夫森解釋道。他倆發現“門廳與步入式衣帽間的死角區”可以打造出一個房間。他說：“我認為如果把廚房區跳出去，就能把該死角區隔出來。最后效果比原先設想得還要好，感覺真成了一小間房，而不是壁櫥?！蔽址蛏f起新打造出的多媒體房(借助門廳的大推拉門進出其間)時，激動之情溢于言表。造訪的客人就睡在他從網上淘來的沙發床上，上方墻上掛的是Roundabout Theatre Company劇團推出的音樂劇《Cabaret》的宣傳海報，《Cabaret》是坎德爾與艾布(Kander and Ebb)組合創作的經典音樂劇，講述了因主人公優柔寡斷而導致嚴重后果的故事。

“I remember going to see it in summer camp for the first time when I was probably 10 or 11 and was absolutely captivated by it,” Wolfson says. That it is a musical combined with history and “some real message” was a revelatory experience for Wolfson, who was told at an early age that he should be a lawyer. “I was very verbal, liked to argue, and I always wanted to accomplish something,” he recalls of his childhood in Pittsburgh. He is sitting on a brown leather couch in his living room. Above him hangs his impressive collection of hand-carved wooden masks, which span many countries and represent decades of travel. They are hung more or less chronologically, from left to right, beginning with ones he bought while serving in the peace corps in west Africa after graduating from Harvard Law School.

“我記得自己大約10、11歲時，在夏令營第一次觀看這部音樂劇，就徹底為此折服?！蔽址蛏f。這部與歷史事實及“某些真知灼見”相結合的音樂劇對于沃夫森來說可謂醍醐灌頂：他很小的時候，就有人說他將來適合當律師?！拔覐男【湍苎陨妻q，一直希望有所成就。”他如此回憶自己在美國匹茲堡市(Pittsburgh)度過的童年時光。接受我的采訪時，他就坐在客廳的棕色皮質長沙發上，頭頂則掛著他收藏的各種手工雕刻的木頭面具。這些面具來自很多國家，是他幾十年闖蕩世界的見證。它們從左至右、按時間先后順序掛在墻上，最早的幾個面具是他從哈佛大學法學院(Harvard Law School)畢業后、遠赴西非擔任和平隊志愿者后購置的。

“I used to buy a mask every time I travelled, partly because that was one of the great art objects I was able to find when I was in my twenties in Africa. I also liked the idea because it connects to gay history,” he says, referencing the Mattachine Society, one of the first gay liberation groups in the US. “They wore masks because the idea was that gay people wear masks. We pass as something we’re not because we’re being persecuted.”

“我過去每次出去游歷，都會買上個面具，部分原因是自己20來歲在非洲時，那是本人所能淘到的精美藝術品。我也很贊同馬塔辛社團(Mattachine Society)的理念，因為它與同性戀的歷史緊密關聯?！彼f。他所說的馬塔辛社團是美國首批爭取同性戀平等權利的組織?！吧鐖F成員均戴著面具，因為當時想出來的主意就是這樣做。我們同性戀者不以真面目示人，因為我們當時正遭受迫害。”

Wolfson realised that who you are is influenced not only by the choices society gives you but also by the language at your disposal. In 1983, he began exploring this in his law school thesis, which advocated for marriage equality. At the time, he reasoned that “by claiming the vocabulary of marriage we would be seizing an engine of transformation that would help non-gay people better understand who gay people were”.

沃夫森認為個人的身份不僅取決于社會賦予的機會，而且取決于自己掌握話語權。1983年，他在自己的法學博士論文中開始探討此問題，論文的主旨是支持婚姻平等權。當時，他就推理得出：“公然宣揚婚姻平權的詞匯，將能抓住徹底改變社會觀念的契機，幫助非同性戀者更好理解同性戀者的真實情況?！薄?/p>

Living in a village in rural Africa while in the peace corps, he noticed something about the men he was sleeping with: “If they lived in a different society, they would probably be gay. Because they lived in a society where that wasn’t allowed, and they didn’t even have a language for it, they were probably going to grow up, marry women and live somewhat unfulfilled lives.”

作為和平隊志愿者居住在西非的鄉村時，他就注意到了自己“同床共枕者”的一些異常情況：“這些人要是生活在西方社會，就很可能成為同志。但由于他們生活的社會并不允許，甚至在語言上也是個禁區，他們可能就這樣(以非同志的身份)長大成人、娶妻生子，但終生郁郁寡歡?！?/p>

One of the many books that line the discreetly built-in bookshelves throughout the apartment is John Boswell’s Christianity, Social Tolerance and Homosexuality, which Wolfson read in college and credits with changing his life. “It was this groundbreaking book that traced the first 3,000 years of western civilisation from biblical times to the Renaissance. Boswell showed homosexuality had not always been scorned. It showed me that if it had once been different, it could be different again.”

沃夫森的整套房子都精心打造了嵌入式書架，上面擺滿了書，其中之一就是約翰?博斯韋爾的《基督教、社會寬容與同性戀》(John Boswell’s Christianity, Social Tolerance and Homosexuality)，沃夫森上大學時就拜讀過它，認為是它改變了自己的人生?！罢沁@本劃時代的巨著，追溯了西方文明從圣經(遠古)時代到文藝復興時代最初3000年的歷史。博斯韋爾在書中闡述了同性戀并非一直不受社會待見。該書表明：只要史上有過一次不同，就能有第二次?！?/p>

Wolfson has the kind of profound optimism that can make seismic change possible. When he argued the Hawaii case, public support for gay marriage in the US was at 27 per cent. Nearly two decades later it stands at 63 per cent, apparently riding a wave of inevitability that once seemed impossible.

沃夫森具有能使金石為開的樂觀豁達。他為夏威夷Baehr v Miike一案辯護時，美國民眾對同性戀的支持率只有27%;近二十年后，民眾支持率高達63%，曾經天方夜譚的事，如今儼然已成不可逆轉之勢。

“Gay people have been fighting for the freedom to marry for 40 years. This has been a long time building and coming, and the product of millions of conversations and many gay people telling our stories, talking about our love, living our lives and showing people why they needed to change their minds,” Wolfson explains. He does not begrudge anyone his or her previously held beliefs and likes to quote Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin’s reasoning, “I’m in a delegation that formerly included Abraham Lincoln, and when he was pushed once on how he had changed his mind said, ‘I’d rather be right some of the time than wrong all of the time.’”

“同性戀者爭取婚姻自由權的斗爭已有40年。今天夢想成真，經過了漫漫征程，是成百上千萬次坦誠對話的結果，也是很多同志不斷講述自己的愛情故事、酸甜苦辣的生活，以活生生的例子向美國民眾解釋為何他們必須改變成見的結果?！蔽址蛏忉尩?。他并不忌恨任何人之前的成見，相反喜歡引用參議院少數黨議院督導迪克?德賓(Dick Durbin)的說理：“我所在的參議院，林肯也曾經是其中的一員，當林肯有次被問及為何改變觀念時這樣回答道：‘我寧可一時對，而不愿一世錯?！?/p>

During the renovation, Wolfson toyed with dispensing with a kitchen but decided on a smaller open-plan one that flows seamlessly into the sitting room and features a large island made from a slab of paonazzo marble. Another slab stretches the length of the room, elegantly sitting on top of two low bookshelves beneath south-facing windows. The room looks out over Sixth Avenue with the Freedom Tower in the distance.

在裝修房子期間，沃夫森臨時起意不設廚房，轉而決定打造成小型的開放式空間，實現與客廳的無縫對接，并用一大塊意大利paonazzo大理石雕刻一座大島置于其中。另一塊大理石則橫貫整個房間，巧妙地搭在向陽窗下的兩排矮書架上。從房間可以眺望第六大街(Sixth Avenue)的勝景、飽覽遠處自由塔(Freedom Tower)的豐姿。

Leftover marble was used to transform the top of a small wood table near the entrance and two nightstand tables and a long desk in the bedroom. Wolfson worries it is too much marble, and it might be, but for the white oak floors that are stained deep brown, giving a farmhouse-chic contrast to the marble’s elegant modernism. A warmth radiates throughout the place.

大理石的邊角料則廢物利用，做成了門口小木桌的臺面、床頭柜面以及浴室長條桌的桌面。沃夫森擔心大理石使用太多，要不是整成深棕色的白橡木地板的映襯，別致的農家風格與大理石的現代典雅會形成鮮明對照。整個居室處處洋溢著溫馨。

A log split in two and painted with images from the 16th-century Incan conquest holds particular importance for the couple, who agonised about buying it at a market in Peru, unsure if they would be allowed to bring it on the plane home. “It stands not only as a beautiful object that’s reminiscent of a great trip and has this historical feel to it, but it’s also a reminder of ‘just do it,’ you know?”

在一根鋸成兩半的圓木截面上，繪著16世紀西班牙征服古印加帝國的畫面，這件工藝品對他們兩口子有著特殊意義，在秘魯某個市場買下后，他倆十分糾結，因為不知飛機能否允許托運。“這件漂亮藝術品不僅是見證我倆重要旅程的信物、極富歷史滄桑感，而且還時刻提醒我們要‘只管去做’，意思你懂得的，對吧?”

When Evan Wolfson bought his Greenwich Village apartment in 1996, he had barely enough time to move in before catching a plane to Hawaii to serve as co-counsel on Baehr v Miike. That case is now considered a watershed in the marriage equality movement, of which the charismatic lawyer is considered the prime architect. It was the first time a court ruled that excluding gay and lesbian couples from marriage was discrimination. It was also the catalyst in bringing about the discriminatory Defense of Marriage Act, which was struck down by the Supreme Court in 2024 — Wolfson’s campaign, Freedom to Marry, played an instrumental role.

埃文?沃夫森(Evan Wolfson)1996年買下紐約格林尼治村(Greenwich Village)的公寓房后，還沒等搬入就匆匆搭機前往夏威夷，擔任Baehr v Miike同性婚姻案件的協理律師。該案件如今被視作婚姻平權運動的分水嶺，而他這位魅力十足的律師則被譽為平權運動的“總設計師”。這是美國法院首次做出排斥同性戀者的婚姻為歧視的裁決。該案進而導致歧視同性戀者的《婚姻保護法》(Defense of Marriage Act，將婚姻定義為“一男一女的結合”)出臺。美國最高法院則于2024年判定《婚姻保護法》違憲————而沃夫森發起的非政府組織“婚姻自由”組織在其中扮演了重要角色。

In the past two years, he’s helped win 65 state and federal court rulings. The Supreme Court is set to rule imminently on whether same-sex marriages deserve federal protection. In the past two years, he has also completely renovated his apartment, which he now shares with his husband, Cheng He, 40, who uses his PhD in molecular biology to consult for pharmaceutical and healthcare companies. When they met online in 2002, there was an “instant connection”, says Wolfson, and they’ve been together ever since, marrying in 2011 when New York joined a growing number of states to legalise same-sex marriage.

在過去兩年中，沃夫森共幫助打贏了65樁聯邦與州涉及同性戀的官司。社會迫切需要最高法院就同性婚姻是否應得到聯邦法律保護做出裁決。過去兩年里，他還把自己的公寓房裝修一新，如今則與自己的同性丈夫、40歲的何成(Cheng He)居住于此。分子生物學博士何成是制藥廠與保健公司的顧問。他倆2002年通過網絡結識后，可謂“一見鐘情”，沃夫森說。從那之后，倆人一直形影不離，并于2011年在紐約登記結婚，因為同年紐約州與越來越多的州一樣，實現了同性婚姻合法化。

After the couple gave up on a long-running fantasy to buy the studio next to their one-bedroom flat, they decided to renovate instead. “I wanted to make it his too, not just mine,” Wolfson explains. They found an extra room hiding in the “dead space of the entry hall and walk-in closet”, he says. “I thought if we pulled the kitchen forward and out, we’d be able to carve something into that dead space. It worked out better than we thought; it really feels like a little room instead of just an alcove,” Wolfson says excitedly of the newly created media room that is accessed by a large sliding door off the entry hall. Guests sleep on an elegant futon he found online, above which hangs a poster from the Roundabout Theatre Company’s production of Cabaret, the classic Kander and Ebb musical that shows the chilling consequences of inaction.

兩人決定結束長時間的拍拖，轉而買下了緊臨他們同居的一臥公寓旁的工作室，并決定把它徹底裝修一番?！拔蚁Ｍ阉蛟斐晌覀儍扇斯餐膼鄢?。”沃夫森解釋道。他倆發現“門廳與步入式衣帽間的死角區”可以打造出一個房間。他說：“我認為如果把廚房區跳出去，就能把該死角區隔出來。最后效果比原先設想得還要好，感覺真成了一小間房，而不是壁櫥?！蔽址蛏f起新打造出的多媒體房(借助門廳的大推拉門進出其間)時，激動之情溢于言表。造訪的客人就睡在他從網上淘來的沙發床上，上方墻上掛的是Roundabout Theatre Company劇團推出的音樂劇《Cabaret》的宣傳海報，《Cabaret》是坎德爾與艾布(Kander and Ebb)組合創作的經典音樂劇，講述了因主人公優柔寡斷而導致嚴重后果的故事。

“I remember going to see it in summer camp for the first time when I was probably 10 or 11 and was absolutely captivated by it,” Wolfson says. That it is a musical combined with history and “some real message” was a revelatory experience for Wolfson, who was told at an early age that he should be a lawyer. “I was very verbal, liked to argue, and I always wanted to accomplish something,” he recalls of his childhood in Pittsburgh. He is sitting on a brown leather couch in his living room. Above him hangs his impressive collection of hand-carved wooden masks, which span many countries and represent decades of travel. They are hung more or less chronologically, from left to right, beginning with ones he bought while serving in the peace corps in west Africa after graduating from Harvard Law School.

“我記得自己大約10、11歲時，在夏令營第一次觀看這部音樂劇，就徹底為此折服?！蔽址蛏f。這部與歷史事實及“某些真知灼見”相結合的音樂劇對于沃夫森來說可謂醍醐灌頂：他很小的時候，就有人說他將來適合當律師?！拔覐男【湍苎陨妻q，一直希望有所成就。”他如此回憶自己在美國匹茲堡市(Pittsburgh)度過的童年時光。接受我的采訪時，他就坐在客廳的棕色皮質長沙發上，頭頂則掛著他收藏的各種手工雕刻的木頭面具。這些面具來自很多國家，是他幾十年闖蕩世界的見證。它們從左至右、按時間先后順序掛在墻上，最早的幾個面具是他從哈佛大學法學院(Harvard Law School)畢業后、遠赴西非擔任和平隊志愿者后購置的。

“I used to buy a mask every time I travelled, partly because that was one of the great art objects I was able to find when I was in my twenties in Africa. I also liked the idea because it connects to gay history,” he says, referencing the Mattachine Society, one of the first gay liberation groups in the US. “They wore masks because the idea was that gay people wear masks. We pass as something we’re not because we’re being persecuted.”

“我過去每次出去游歷，都會買上個面具，部分原因是自己20來歲在非洲時，那是本人所能淘到的精美藝術品。我也很贊同馬塔辛社團(Mattachine Society)的理念，因為它與同性戀的歷史緊密關聯。”他說。他所說的馬塔辛社團是美國首批爭取同性戀平等權利的組織?！吧鐖F成員均戴著面具，因為當時想出來的主意就是這樣做。我們同性戀者不以真面目示人，因為我們當時正遭受迫害?！?/p>

Wolfson realised that who you are is influenced not only by the choices society gives you but also by the language at your disposal. In 1983, he began exploring this in his law school thesis, which advocated for marriage equality. At the time, he reasoned that “by claiming the vocabulary of marriage we would be seizing an engine of transformation that would help non-gay people better understand who gay people were”.

沃夫森認為個人的身份不僅取決于社會賦予的機會，而且取決于自己掌握話語權。1983年，他在自己的法學博士論文中開始探討此問題，論文的主旨是支持婚姻平等權。當時，他就推理得出：“公然宣揚婚姻平權的詞匯，將能抓住徹底改變社會觀念的契機，幫助非同性戀者更好理解同性戀者的真實情況。”。

Living in a village in rural Africa while in the peace corps, he noticed something about the men he was sleeping with: “If they lived in a different society, they would probably be gay. Because they lived in a society where that wasn’t allowed, and they didn’t even have a language for it, they were probably going to grow up, marry women and live somewhat unfulfilled lives.”

作為和平隊志愿者居住在西非的鄉村時，他就注意到了自己“同床共枕者”的一些異常情況：“這些人要是生活在西方社會，就很可能成為同志。但由于他們生活的社會并不允許，甚至在語言上也是個禁區，他們可能就這樣(以非同志的身份)長大成人、娶妻生子，但終生郁郁寡歡?！?/p>

One of the many books that line the discreetly built-in bookshelves throughout the apartment is John Boswell’s Christianity, Social Tolerance and Homosexuality, which Wolfson read in college and credits with changing his life. “It was this groundbreaking book that traced the first 3,000 years of western civilisation from biblical times to the Renaissance. Boswell showed homosexuality had not always been scorned. It showed me that if it had once been different, it could be different again.”

沃夫森的整套房子都精心打造了嵌入式書架，上面擺滿了書，其中之一就是約翰?博斯韋爾的《基督教、社會寬容與同性戀》(John Boswell’s Christianity, Social Tolerance and Homosexuality)，沃夫森上大學時就拜讀過它，認為是它改變了自己的人生?！罢沁@本劃時代的巨著，追溯了西方文明從圣經(遠古)時代到文藝復興時代最初3000年的歷史。博斯韋爾在書中闡述了同性戀并非一直不受社會待見。該書表明：只要史上有過一次不同，就能有第二次?！?/p>

Wolfson has the kind of profound optimism that can make seismic change possible. When he argued the Hawaii case, public support for gay marriage in the US was at 27 per cent. Nearly two decades later it stands at 63 per cent, apparently riding a wave of inevitability that once seemed impossible.

沃夫森具有能使金石為開的樂觀豁達。他為夏威夷Baehr v Miike一案辯護時，美國民眾對同性戀的支持率只有27%;近二十年后，民眾支持率高達63%，曾經天方夜譚的事，如今儼然已成不可逆轉之勢。

“Gay people have been fighting for the freedom to marry for 40 years. This has been a long time building and coming, and the product of millions of conversations and many gay people telling our stories, talking about our love, living our lives and showing people why they needed to change their minds,” Wolfson explains. He does not begrudge anyone his or her previously held beliefs and likes to quote Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin’s reasoning, “I’m in a delegation that formerly included Abraham Lincoln, and when he was pushed once on how he had changed his mind said, ‘I’d rather be right some of the time than wrong all of the time.’”

“同性戀者爭取婚姻自由權的斗爭已有40年。今天夢想成真，經過了漫漫征程，是成百上千萬次坦誠對話的結果，也是很多同志不斷講述自己的愛情故事、酸甜苦辣的生活，以活生生的例子向美國民眾解釋為何他們必須改變成見的結果?！蔽址蛏忉尩?。他并不忌恨任何人之前的成見，相反喜歡引用參議院少數黨議院督導迪克?德賓(Dick Durbin)的說理：“我所在的參議院，林肯也曾經是其中的一員，當林肯有次被問及為何改變觀念時這樣回答道：‘我寧可一時對，而不愿一世錯?！?/p>

During the renovation, Wolfson toyed with dispensing with a kitchen but decided on a smaller open-plan one that flows seamlessly into the sitting room and features a large island made from a slab of paonazzo marble. Another slab stretches the length of the room, elegantly sitting on top of two low bookshelves beneath south-facing windows. The room looks out over Sixth Avenue with the Freedom Tower in the distance.

在裝修房子期間，沃夫森臨時起意不設廚房，轉而決定打造成小型的開放式空間，實現與客廳的無縫對接，并用一大塊意大利paonazzo大理石雕刻一座大島置于其中。另一塊大理石則橫貫整個房間，巧妙地搭在向陽窗下的兩排矮書架上。從房間可以眺望第六大街(Sixth Avenue)的勝景、飽覽遠處自由塔(Freedom Tower)的豐姿。

Leftover marble was used to transform the top of a small wood table near the entrance and two nightstand tables and a long desk in the bedroom. Wolfson worries it is too much marble, and it might be, but for the white oak floors that are stained deep brown, giving a farmhouse-chic contrast to the marble’s elegant modernism. A warmth radiates throughout the place.

大理石的邊角料則廢物利用，做成了門口小木桌的臺面、床頭柜面以及浴室長條桌的桌面。沃夫森擔心大理石使用太多，要不是整成深棕色的白橡木地板的映襯，別致的農家風格與大理石的現代典雅會形成鮮明對照。整個居室處處洋溢著溫馨。

A log split in two and painted with images from the 16th-century Incan conquest holds particular importance for the couple, who agonised about buying it at a market in Peru, unsure if they would be allowed to bring it on the plane home. “It stands not only as a beautiful object that’s reminiscent of a great trip and has this historical feel to it, but it’s also a reminder of ‘just do it,’ you know?”

在一根鋸成兩半的圓木截面上，繪著16世紀西班牙征服古印加帝國的畫面，這件工藝品對他們兩口子有著特殊意義，在秘魯某個市場買下后，他倆十分糾結，因為不知飛機能否允許托運。“這件漂亮藝術品不僅是見證我倆重要旅程的信物、極富歷史滄桑感，而且還時刻提醒我們要‘只管去做’，意思你懂得的，對吧?”