Celebrating marriage equality in West Hollywood

oh....say can you see...

  I was there, my friends. Right smack dab in the middle of all those people. Listening to Lorri Jean introduce elected officials, clergy and the lawyers who made it all happen. Robin and Diane were there thanking the crowd...

  I know Robin and Diane, I know Lorrie and I hugged SO many people. My friends, writer actor and original NEA4 litigant, Tim Miller was there with his love of 14 years, Alistair.
 Buddies from Pop Luck and PFLAG were there. Hugs, hugs and more hugs. Children...LOTS of children were there. And they were some of the most beautiful kids I've ever seen. So FRIENDLY these little ones. Hugging total strangers and grinning and wanting to be lifted up on shoulders to see better.

 I was there...on the verge of happy tears any moment because I had been in the trenches with these good people. I texted Keith Boykin, my filmaker pal and North Carolina native Tim Kirkman and said WISH YOU WERE HERE!
I was THERE!!!
 Being hugged, kissed and congratulated by my friends who knew I'd been working to see this moment since 2000. But that's a small thing compared to the couples who'd waited for DECADES for their day in the sun.

  I was there...feeling like...is THIS what the civil rights activists felt when the Civil Rights Act was passed. Or Mildred Loving when ALL states in our country allowed mixed marriage.

 I. Was. There...with my best friend Mikey who laments his busted past relationships and sometimes he wonders if he'll ever find 'The One'. But he at least knows he can hope for a life in full legal realization of marriage.

  I was there...looking at couples with their eyes shining, happy, caring...loving their state and country again. Seeing possibility and hope again.
THAT is what marriage is about, the hope and courage love gives.

  You see this field of faces? Oh can you SEE this field of dreams? Black, brown...white and yellow, red and everything in between. The family of man, the family of us all.

 I was there...
 I was THERE!!!

 And no moment in my life...except my own wedding day, could get better than that.

   

---

by: Regan DuCasse @ Fri May 16, 2008 at 18:24:25 PM CDT

...thanks Regan.

Adding your comment to my little text diary of other announcements.

It's the Hammer of JUSTICE,
It's the Bell of FREEDOM,
It's the Song about LOVE between,
my Brothers and my Sisters
...All over this Land.

---

by: Orion45 @ Fri May 16, 2008 at 22:05:12 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Almost like being there

Thanks for this, Pam and Regan. Gives us all a taste of the celebration and helps us to feel part of an historical moment!

Whatever is ahead, it's always necessary to bask in joy when you can. Let it flow over us - it will refresh us and we need it!

I am so choked up.

Regan, what you said here made the tears flow:

I was there...looking at couples with their eyes shining, happy, caring...loving their state and country again. Seeing possibility and hope again.
THAT is what marriage is about, the hope and courage love gives.

Beautiful.

---

by: LAwaters27 @ Fri May 16, 2008 at 19:20:54 PM CDT

I cannot wait

for a day when everyone can be as happy as this. Beautiful.

Click HERE and sign up: Campaign For Military Partners

Click here for DADT photobook

---

by: Louise @ Fri May 16, 2008 at 19:35:30 PM CDT

HRC?

Just curious - does anybody out there know how much support HRC has lended to this effort? When I first started following this story a few weeks ago, I thought local groups like the LA Gay and Lesbian Center were leading this fight. Within hours of the decision I got an HRC email asking for money and essentially taking credit for the victory. HRC gets on my nerves big time because, in my opinion, they are all talk and no real action and too tied to certain candidates. Anyway, just want to know if I am wrong in assuming that they had little to no hand in this victory and are just trying to be associated with it now that this 4 yr plus battle has been won for now.  

---

by: HPRIC @ Fri May 16, 2008 at 19:39:52 PM CDT

...HRC helped a little.

A very Little.  I followed the case and the fight against the petition through Equality California... Geoff Kors Pres.  It was these groups that led the case. This is from HRC letter today.

We congratulate and commend the National Center for Lesbian Rights, Lambda Legal, the ACLU, Heller Ehrman, the Law Office of David C. Codell, Equality California, Our Family Coalition and, of course, the courageous plaintiff couples and their families who looked to the courts to defend their rights.

Later Joe S asks for $$ to help against the amendment, saying they will give it all (100%) to EQUALiTY FOR ALL...

Contribute to the HRC California Marriage PAC and 100% of your contribution will be directed to fight against the anti-marriage ballot initiative in California.

that is who EQ CA says should get $$ too, as they really trained and put people out on the ground at petition gathering sites and  almost stopped the drive.

I guess I actually hope we vote and that EQUALITY gets a huge plebiscite.. then people will know that Californians agree, ( and are brilliant. lol)

It's the Hammer of JUSTICE,
It's the Bell of FREEDOM,
It's the Song about LOVE between,
my Brothers and my Sisters
...All over this Land.

---

by: Orion45 @ Fri May 16, 2008 at 21:58:26 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

HRC admits.

They eventually sent 6 people out to help. SIX!... Whereas EQ for ALL put literally hundreds and hundres out by the end of the petition drive.

It's the Hammer of JUSTICE,
It's the Bell of FREEDOM,
It's the Song about LOVE between,
my Brothers and my Sisters
...All over this Land.

---

by: Orion45 @ Fri May 16, 2008 at 22:00:09 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

HRC admits

Yes SIX full-time people, who worked to organize the fight in Orange county, for eight weeks!  My partner, a big butch lesbian, was there for 8 FUCKING weeks, with one three day visit home.  Those HRC people worked their asses off, with 12-14 hour days, coordinating volunteers, arranging phone banks, asking people to refuse to sign, getting screamed at, and being told they were going to hell.

Yes! SIX full-time people for EIGHT weeks.

---

by: rhetor1999 @ Sat May 17, 2008 at 08:27:42 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

It's nit-picky, I know

But Massachusetts is not a state. It is a Commonwealth. Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Virginia and Massachusetts are all Commonwealths by constitution.

---

by: Dawn in Maine @ Fri May 16, 2008 at 21:22:41 PM CDT

they are states.

A state is free to call itself whatever it wants to, but from a federal perspective, it is indeed a state.  For example, AR could rename itself The Theocracy of Arkansas under God's Fiery Domain.  It could even state this in it's constitution.  But unless it successfully secedes from the US, it is still a state.

Click HERE and sign up: Campaign For Military Partners.

Lurleen on Twitter.

---

by: Lurleen @ Fri May 16, 2008 at 21:55:10 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

FN awesome!

Oh, I am sooo missing WeHo today. How historic and uplifting. Our love goes out to our family in the great state of Califuckingfornia. Soak it in.
The HRC question is so typical of every organization. EQFL gets hits like that too. And guess what. They're good people, busting their asses and spending our money wisely.
Yes, I think we need to "keep them honest". Yes, I see our community throwing stones with some frequency. If you want a say in how thinhgs are done, get active. Yes, we all need to remember that we do'nt see a sliver of the work that actually goes on behind the scenes.
We should be kissing these peoples asses and sending them truck loads of money and / or our time.
Our success has to be a team effort. Ground up and top down.
That sounds wierd, no?
LOL
Our hearts, our gratitude, our love is with you today, as always CA!

http://EQFL.org

---

by: banshiii @ Sat May 17, 2008 at 10:55:18 AM CDT

CALIFORNIA HERE WE COME!

Heres a comment from someone in Florida... some of you may know him Waymon Hudson of FIGHTING OUT LOUD...I'd like to copy some of his HOMOPOLITICO Blog of today.

PS Pam I think you need a whole CALIFORNIA HERE WE COME column. Let the rest of the country know just what this MEANS to those not here. I am so glad there is no residency requirement... it will enable the good to be really spread around.  Then all those couples can go back to their own states and call themselves married ... and they'll have almost a downhill fight instead of uphill, because they... WILL BE MARRIED. 

 

Get me to the church on time
Filed by: Waymon Hudson
May 17, 2008 12:00 PM
Well, I guess my partner is finally making an honest man out of me. We are hopping on the love train and getting married in California.We are to be wed on June 27, 2008. And I couldn't be happier.
Anthony and I already consider ourselves married. We have been together for six years and have a son. We have our civil union from Vermont, our domestic partnership in our county in Florida, and had a commitment ceremony with our families. We have more anniversaries than you could even imagine. Any excuse for gifts and jewelry, right?....
I think it is simply a validation of what we feel in our hearts. It won't make a difference for us in Florida but on some level, it's pretty powerful. We won't be domestic partners, or "civil unioned"- but married. Anthony will be my husband.
Joking with a gal pal who does 'not believe' in marriage ... he tried to describe how he felt.
We joked back and forth about what kind of dress I would wear. I said it didn't matter what I wore, to which she replied-
"But this time it's for real."
I couldn't have said it better myself.

It's the Hammer of JUSTICE,
It's the Bell of FREEDOM,
It's the Song about LOVE between,
my Brothers and my Sisters
...All over this Land.

---

by: Orion45 @ Sat May 17, 2008 at 15:20:01 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

good news

i almost got a tear in my eye. I'm studying in England right now so I can't watch youtube very often so I hope to see more videos somehow soon

---

by: kcflood @ Sat May 17, 2008 at 15:18:30 PM CDT

It's Good to Celebrate, but . . .

We can rest on our laurels.  Grand Ayatollah Dobson and his minions will be going into overdrive to get that ballot initiative passed in November!

---

by: Jon Michaels @ Sat May 17, 2008 at 19:24:32 PM CDT