Here is a news story about a couple I met a couple of years ago in Boulder, Colorado, who recently got married in California:
http://www.dailycamera.com/news/2008/jul/11/boulder-gay-couple-weds-california/James Baetke, For the Camera
Friday, July 11, 2008
While newlyweds Keith Brown and Ramon Diaz took turns lifting their shared mug of coffee on the patio of a cafe, each of their silver wedding bands reflected in the sun’s rays.
They were slightly nervous to talk about their big news, but both said they were ready to let all of Boulder know — or whoever will listen — that they are legally married, weeks after they wed in San Francisco on June 25.
Their rings carry a symbolic weight, they said.
“It’s a public way of formalizing our relationship,” Brown said. “It’s a personal commitment between us.”
The reasons to wed also were practical, they said: wills, Social Security and health benefits.
“Marriage, to me, is to help protect my partner, and unfortunately (Colorado) and national laws aren’t there yet,” Brown said.
Ten years into their relationship, Brown and Diaz decided that a planned trip to a California gay and lesbian film festival would also be the week they would exchange vows. The decision was on a whim after the California Supreme Court started to allow gay marriages June 16.
All it took was scheduling a civil ceremony online and $150.
“I started to get butterflies just before the ceremony,” Diaz said.
The two men said they felt “extremely welcomed” at City Hall, with numerous volunteers welcoming couples with smiles and applause and a string quartet playing at the end of the ceremony. The couple went through the motions as any straight couple would: the rings, the vows and, oh yes, the kiss.
“When we kissed, I knew this was it,” Brown said.
The simple ceremony included a friend from Colorado Springs who acted as a witness and a “straight” and “sweet” judge, the couple said.
“I never would have believed government bureaucrats could be so warm, welcoming and loving,” Diaz said. “You stepped into City Hall and you saw all these different couples —different ages, different colors and sizes.”
Brown, 56, and Diaz, 44, live in a co-housing community of 11 families and said they are widely welcomed as the only gay couple in the neighborhood. They see the city as open and gay-friendly.
They gave little notice to their neighbors and friends about their marriage. But when they came home as newlyweds, their neighbors came together and bought the most ubiquitous wedding gift possible: a cheap toaster.
“The toaster symbolizes, ‘Now you’re married like everyone else,’” said Angelique Espinoza, the couple’s neighbor and a Boulder councilwoman. “Keith and Ramon are great people, and I am so blessed to have them in my life.”
Brown and Diaz met in Boulder 13 years ago just as the cyber world was beginning to heat up.
“We met back when the Internet was first becoming popular, and we actually met online,” Brown said. “Back when chats were called bulletin boards.”
Brown, a self-employed salesman, is divorced and has a daughter. He grew up in Iowa as the middle child of three boys. His older brother takes the “gay thing” fine, he said, but his younger sibling finds it hard to accept.
Diaz was born and raised in Guam as the youngest of 10 children. Not all his siblings accept his sexual orientation, but his mother and father have learned to accept it.
The men weighed the pros and cons of printing a wedding announcement in the Camera.
“It was a curiosity, on my part, to see if the Camera would publish it,” Brown said. “Would anyone in the public act negatively?”
Their official announcement will appear in Sunday’s edition.
Topic: Shakesthegrounds Rumblings (Read 2596435 times)