A Valentine’s Day Love Story
I want to tell you a love story.
Twenty-five Valentine’s Days ago, as a senior in college, I knocked on the door of a girl I really liked, a single red rose in my hand. She let me in! I could not have expected the life we’d have together.
We waited nearly a year before I moved into her apartment, which was now across the country. Together, we had started our grown-up lives with jobs and independence, forged new friendships together and, like any young people, started to think about who we wanted to be and what we wanted to do.
After we’d been living together for at least five years, I asked Laura to commit to our relationship for life. At the time, the idea that we could actually get married seemed so far-fetched!
A couple of weeks ago, we celebrated our twenty-fifth anniversary. In that time, we’ve weathered three cross-country moves, traveled and been through graduate school. We’ve had two children–nine and ten now–and we couldn’t imagine our lives without them. Through it all, we’ve experienced moments of great joy too numerous to mention and, through it all, our affection has endured and grown.
As we’ve changed and grown, the world around us has changed too. Something that had once seemed far-fetched–the freedom to marry who we love–is becoming realized across our country. In California and Washington to Illinois and New Jersey, change is coming.
But there is more work to do. And that’s why, on this Valentine’s day, we are asking our friends, our family–and you–to join us in making a contribution to Equality California of $25, $100, $250 or whatever you can afford so Equality California can continue to work at every level to break through these final barriers that stand between us and full equality.
Each of us deserves to have that love story–to have that freedom. Together, we will prevail.
