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Justly Married
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$2,000 donated to DontAmend.com!
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I'm straight. I'm straight and I'm male and I'm extremely lucky. I'm lucky because I'm in love with a wonderful woman and we're getting married in July. And no one is standing in our way. But same-sex couples aren't so lucky. There are plenty of people who want to discriminate against them, and pretend that discrimination legal. Here in San Francisco, we have a mayor that stood up and said what should be obvious: The state constitution says you can't discriminate based on sexual orientation, so preventing same-sex couples from being married is illegal. And on February 12, San Francisco started performing same-sex marriages in City Hall. My girlfriend and I went to City Hall on February 15, the day after Valentine's Day, to show our support. And the feeling of joy was overwhelming. I really can't understand how anyone who could see the look of joy on the faces of the people coming down the steps of City Hall could say anything but "Mazel Tov!" I took a lot of pictues that day. (If you're in one of them, please contact me so I can send you a print.) Of all of the photos I took, this shot of the steps seemed to capture the moment on an emotional level. There you can see all the rice and flower petals thrown as the couples exited the building, and the rain just beginning to fall. So many people have asked me for a print of this image that I decided to make a poster of it. I'm selling it through CafePress and donating the net proceeds to DontAmend.com, a nonprofit organization working to stop any constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage. The future is unclear. There will be court cases and ballot boxes. But progress cannot be stopped. Separate but equal has never been either, and discrimination is just about as unamerican as you can get. I think that someday we'll look back at the trailblazers that walked down those City Hall steps with awe. I'll still be proud to say I was there. – Derek Powazek, 18 February 2004 |
