Acclaimed dancer-choreographer Bill T.
Jones is the latest celebrity to join the Human Rights Campaign's
(HRC) New
Yorkers for Marriage Equality campaign.
“We all agree that marriage is a
fundamental right. And in our country, and in our society, there are
no second-class citizens,” Jones says in a 30-second video released
on Tuesday. (The video is embedded in the right panel of this page.)
In 2009, the 59-year-old Jones won a
Tony Award for Best Choreography for the Broadway musical Fela!,
which he co-created, directed and choreographed.
He's best know as the co-founder of the
Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, which he and his late
partner, Arnie Zane, created in 1982.
Jones is among the growing number of
celebrities and prominent politicians to record a video for the
campaign that began last year.
Five gay rights groups – including
HRC – last week announced the formation of New Yorkers United for
Marriage to begin a new push for the legalization of gay marriage in
New York. The
campaign will be coordinated by Governor Andrew Cuomo's office.
Recent
polling shows a majority (58%) of New York voters favor giving gay
and lesbian couples the right to marry.