Three simple letters – Y E S

I don’t have a story to share about a special couple close to me whose dream it is to walk down the aisle. I didn’t struggle through my early adulthood wondering about my sexuality and questioning whether or not the things that other people take for grants like marriage and children would ever be options for me. 

In many ways, I had it easy. I fell in love at 18.  After ten years together, he asked, and I said Yes. We married amid great celebrations with friends and family. Our wedding day was more than just a great big party. That ceremony of marriage conferred rights on us that we wouldn’t have otherwise. We had a church wedding, but the rights we gained were civil rights. There were the obvious financial rights like the right to inherit from each other and the right to share tax credits. 

But more important to us was the right to be considered family. The right to be consulted as next of kin for each other should the need arise. And the right to automatic guardianship of our children. 

When my children grow up, I want them to have this right to build a family with the person they love regardless of their sexuality. This Friday we have an opportunity to ensure they have that right. We have the chance to say Yes to marriage again. And I hope that when they are older, my kids won’t ever remember a time when they or some of their peers were unequal purely by accident of their sexuality. 

We have a chance for positive change here, to bring joy and happiness and the legal right to family to others. 

Say Yes.