marriage equality day

Thursday was the day the California Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the cases seeking to overturn Proposition 8, and the opposing case seeking to uphold the proposition and also to nullify the same-sex marriages (including mine) that had occurred over the summer.

In the morning I attended a press conference sponsored by California Faith for Equality. Clergy of several different faiths gathered to show our religious support of marriage equality. I didn't speak but I stood behind the speakers with 30 or so other clergy to make a good backdrop for the news cameras.

Looking out at the gathered press I recognized one of the reporters from the local NBC news as I guy who's marriage I had performed several years ago. At the end of the press conference I said hello and asked how his marriage was. He said he and his wife had divorced less than two years after the wedding. I said I was sorry. And then we talked about marriage, his marriage, my marriage. And then he asked if he could interview me.

He asked about my feelings as one of the 18,000 same sex couples who have our marriage on the line with the current court cases. It feels strange that a court might decide whether my marriage will continue or end. Nobody should be involved in that decision except my husband and I. And if the marriages are upheld, but Proposition 8 is also upheld and no more marriages are allowed then I'll be in the strange situation of enjoying a marriage that other people don't have access to, which is actually exactly the situation that heterosexual couples have been in for years and which is the basis of the injustice that we're fighting against.