Close Up

Hunting around the Frameline website looking for a friend's film I found - Surprise! - My face is the ad for the "Dyke Delights" program. Wish I was going to be in San Fran for the screening... I miss the Castro.

It's a week for photos. My sweetie & I are getting ready for our close-up for our couple portrait. Think the NY Times will publish it? I bet they're overrun with queer wedding announcements this week. Looking over my parents', sister's and grandparents' wedding photos, I'm struck by how young, classic and calm they call seem. Happy, for sure, but pretty calm; Like they all knew this was the right thing to be doing. I get it now.

So, I filled out "Party A." Never thought I'd be happy to partake in the bureaucracy of L.A. County... ;-) Picture perfect application.

Love & Pride News Links

So, my sweetie & I wound up on the news for the Love & Pride "Vow to Vote No" event. Some even caught us in the act of kissing! Here are the links:

 

 

(AP) San Jose Mercury News: Gay couples in West Hollywood vow to save marriage rights - they quote us!
And Los Angeles Examiner

(Reuters) Yahoo News Photo of us dancing!
And on USA Today

Freelance Photo of us at the ceremony.

The Advocate: A Marriage Pre-Party in West Hollywood

Erase Hate

Last week my sweetie & I went to see a rogue bunch of high school students perform The Laramie Project in Burbank. Rogue because their principal banned them from performing it, so they wound up contacting the original creators of the show and a whole host of other big hitters in the LGBT and theater communities, and put the show on Mickey & Judy style at the professional theater in downtown Burbank to sold-out crowds and a ton of press. They rocked it. For those of you unfamiliar with the show, The Laramie Project chronicles the town's coping mechanisms in the aftermath of the Matthew Shepard murder and the subsequent trials of his attackers.

Today my sweetie & I will be symbolically married (it isn't legal for same-sex couples in CA until June 17) by the West Hollywood mayor surrounded by a bunch of celebrities, dressed to the nines, wearing donated jewelry, sponsored by the Matthew Shepard Foundation. His mother, Judy Shepard, will be there promoting their "Erase Hate" campaign, and we will be there proudly supporting her.

If you are in WeHo tonight, come be our witness! Stop the initiative. Support Fairness. Erase Hate. And throw some rice on my sweetie & I. We'll be looking pretty snazzy and happy in love.

Bands

My sweetie & I looked at matching wedding bands yesterday. Just a regular couple checking out the rings at Tiffany's. If nothing legally earth shattering happens in the next few weeks, the vows will start flying in CA staring June 17, 2008. I'll continue volunteering at EqualityForAll and praying that the CA constitution stays intact through this election and beyond.

One of my neighbors, a member of the armed services - for whom Memorial Day is most near & dear - came to our holiday BBQ. A sweet guy with his wife, and we respectfully disagreed about same-sex marriage. And I truly mean that we were very respectful of each other's opinions. I'm really thankful that we can have a thoughtful discussion over hamburgers and hotdogs about our core beliefs and genuinely smile and shake hands before, during & after. But I'm really blessed that he's out there protecting my rights in uniform.

God Bless America; In all it's terrible beauty and flaws. My life wouldn't be possible elsewhere.

UPDATE: NY State to Back Same Sex Unions From Elsewhere!

In both our legal states of residence we'll be truly hitched. My parents called past their bedtimes back East to tell me. I am so proud and thrilled.

California Dreamin' is Reality

 

I'm gonna' make an honest woman out of my sweetie - and me! As soon as the news hit that the California Supreme Court overturned their ban on Gay Marriage, I shouted it out to my sweetie in the other room. We kissed and immediately called our loved ones. Pretty handy that we're already engaged and planning a wedding, right? We thought that the NYC ceremony would be all official, having signed up as domestic partners at city hall in the Big Apple, but it turns out that LaLaLand will be the legally binding state of our bliss. Long live May 15, 2008!

UPDATE:

We went to the marriage equality celebration rally in WeHo and wound up on the local news. Don't blink or you'll miss us!

 

 

Next up - volunteer phone banking at EqualityForAll.com next week to defeat the upcoming ballot proposition to amend the state constitution to ban gay marriage. Will the bigots ever stop trying? We won't ever stop fighting for equal rights. I look forward to the day when it won't be a struggle, just peaceful coexistence. That'd be a nice wedding gift.

enGAYged!

Romancing her in the desert (Nipton,CA)

She said YES! (Mojave National Preserve)

The happy enGAYged couple.

Obits

Here are the obituaries for Grandpa Sam, Aunt Mim & Seth:

From Today's Washington Post, a nice article -
Samuel Snyder, 96; Broke Codes And Designed Early Computers

NY Times -
Miriam Borko

NY Times -
Seth Palmer