Classmate Nicky Grist was quoted recently in USA Today concerning a federally funded campaign to promote marriage. Here's what Nicky had to say:
"Most people want to get married someday, and most do. That's not at issue," says Nicky Grist of the Brooklyn-based Alternatives to Marriage Project, a non-profit advocate for the rights of the unmarried.
She and others have organized an ad hoc coalition that will ask the Obama administration to stop using anti-poverty money for marriage promotion.
"What's at issue is really two things, from our perspective," she says. "Should government tell people when to get married? And should government and society privilege marriage over all other relationships? Our answer to both those questions is no."
For those of you who don't know, Nicky is the executive director of the Alternatives to Marriage Project (AtMP), a national nonprofit dedicated to eliminating marital status discrimination from law and policy. Trained and experienced in both public policy analysis and grassroots organizing, she can speak about legal and economic institutions and their effects on people’s lives. AtMP critiques the role of marital status in health care, employment, welfare, taxes, housing, adoption, social security and immigration, as well as voter trends and social stigma. AtMP is a 501c3 with over 8,800 members in all 50 states and Canada. Ms. Grist connects media to an informal speakers bureau of hundreds of AtMP members who are willing to share personal stories, as well as a broad range of relevant academics and practitioners.
After graduating from Yale, Nicky earned a masters degree from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University as well as an executive certificate from Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. Before joining AtMP in 2005, she worked for 18 years in local and federal government, foundations, research institutions and community-based non-profits in New York City and Nairobi, Kenya.
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