I have to say at this moment I'm so worn out I can hardly think, but I'm also on cloud nine and unable to sleep just yet.
I know I posted about it earlier and most have heard, so I won't go into long details.
Friday in Arkansas the ban on same sex marriage was struck down. Saturday in one area of Arkansas they issued some marriage licenses. It's been known though throughout the community that Arkansas would be putting in a stay as soon as possible, so it was a race against the clock for all of us to get married Monday as fast as we could. It's not always the ideal situation of course, but you do what you can with the time you have and the opportunity you get.
My wife and I had decided to leave pretty early in the morning, and my sister agreed to go with us as emotional support. I was surprised that my parents were oddly supportive (especially my dad since he is a jerk in so many ways and we hardly speak to each other).
A group was created on FB to rally everyone together. It was the idea that the LGBT community would come together to show our numbers and how many people were there that wanted this or support it. There were sooo many people! I must admit this came from court rulings over different cases some couples filed. We all owed this opportunity to all those individuals and the groups pushing behind them, and the rest of us that were not involved really did come together I thought.
It was posted early in the morning that couples were already arriving. I'll tell you now I haven't slept because I've been so jittery and nervous, and I ended up waking up the wife and my sister around 1 a.m. and we were out of the home and into the car pretty fast to get in line. We arrived around 2:40 at the court house and got in line with several others that were waiting. We were the tenth couple in line, and I was truly surprised how this event brought people together. We don't know a ton of other couples since we are more of a stay at home and curl up together on the couch kinda pair.
Still everyone was so friendly and honestly when you sit five to six hours against a concrete building I guess it just forms connections with people.
They let us in at seven and started explaining the process and giving paperwork. The first marriage licenses were given out at eight and things got wild. By seven there were only forty of us waiting and that soon hit around one hundred, and I still know couples are going now. When the news got around that the stay shouldn't come through today the crowd went wild with excitement. The big fear on everyone's mind was that the stay would come through and some of us would be turned away. It was really amazing and such a huge diverse group of individuals.
The area for marriage licenses was pretty large but not really built for two hundred plus people to cram into one spot. The staff there (of only like six people) worked so hard to move us through and photographers and ministers were there to contribute their services for free. I told myself I wouldn't cry, but I couldn't help myself when we read our vows. I know at one point the woman even had to repeat what she said because I couldn't hear her through my big sobbing ways.
It took a long time and even being early in the line we did not get out till around ten thirty. The machines were having trouble processing these new certificates and the poor clerks were overloaded. We were packed all together like sardines sweating to death and pressed against each other. Still everyone was amazing. People started passing up the marriage licenses to have the final work of approval. The massive crowd would squeeze together (and I mean squeeze we were really close) to let older couples get in front and get out quicker. Every time someone got their license or they went through the vows the entire crowd would cheer. It didn't matter that we didn't all know each other since we were in it together.
There was only one protestor that came in while some of us were in the process of actually getting married (the wife and I included), coming up to us talking about well you know those things they say. The amount of support there was beautiful. No one was violent and not one person was even mean or tried to bother him. Instead the entire group slowly started to chant that love could not be a sin. Again I was amazed. I saw couples we knew that were not getting married just there to give support. I had one friend show up to meet us and cheer everyone on from the sidelines. Lmao we saw people we knew from different points of our lives (high school included) that we didn't even know were part of the LGBT community.
It really was an amazing experience and words cannot express how I feel.
I've been with my wife for six years and "unofficially" married since 2009. I met her when I was 21 and kind of a somewhat wild crazy girl with hot pink hair. She was nothing like the women I had dated before, very shy and quiet (oddly matched with my talking personality) and very sweet. I'm not sure what made us end up together since we have very little in common, but I knew sitting across from her then at the coffee shop she was special. Again there are no words for how much I love her or the fact that we were able to participate in what happened today. It's never easy living in a community where everyone looks down at you for being different and holding hands in public could get you hurt. I know it's not all over, but the world is changing and hopefully acceptance will come full circle.
Now I need lots of sleep and time to let everything sink in. I know in the following months we will plan a ceremony, and the time will come to change our names. Eventually when we both are stable in the income department again if the world keeps going this way we might be comfortable to fully start a family of our own. At this moment though we've hit a great step. I'm so proud to call her my wife and legally this time.
YEAH WE DID IT!
[Merging threads ~ Kiwi]
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