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February 14, 2005
A February to Remember
As you may have realized, February is a very significant month for me and C'pher. Our first date was in February; February 12th, 2004, was the day Mayor Gavin Newsom started letting same-gender couples get legally married; and two weeks into it, we had our chance to say "I do" on February 27th. Oh, and Valentine's Day, natch.
While we waited on line in our tuxes last year to be married, we attracted the attention of Chronicle photographer Mike Kepka, who kept in touch with us at different points during the year and snapped bunches of photos of us on important and not-so-important days. He even came along with us to Shanghai 1930 a couple weeks ago to snap photos and toast our 10 year anniversary.
This past Saturday was one year from the day that the gay weddings began in City Hall, and there was an article in the Chronicle about the past year. Several of Mike's photos of us got used with this article, though it was not about us, and the reporter only used one innocuous quote from C'pher, and got our reasons for celebrating this year a little mixed up (we celebrated 10 years together, not one year since our SF marriage). What was cool was that the photos were there.
The Mayor had a reception/press conference/love fest on Saturday to mark the day, and everyone who got married was invited. The Rotunda was packed; even the three levels of galleries above the main floor. We ended up in a fantastic spot; right at the top of the grand staircase. We had to look at the back of Gavin, but that's not exactly the worst seat in the house, if you catch my meaning.
It was a very exciting morning. The spirit in the room was very high and spontaneous applause and shouts of "Happy Anniversary" were going on before the speechifying even started. They showed us clips from an upcoming documentary about the weddings being done by the Mayor's brother-in-law. One scene where two deaf women said their vows to one another in ASL broght me to tears quicker than Rebecca looking at a picture of a Black Lab puppy.
When Gavin finally spoke, he really ramped it up. I think he's been taking speaking lessons from Rev. Cecil Williams, because he really had the whole Baptist preacher thing down. He gave a nice verbal spanking (again) to NYC Mayor Bloomberg and really let George W. Bush and his compassionate conservatives have it.
He went on at length about how the best weapon in the "defense of marriage" crowd's arsenal is that restricting marriage to one man and one woman is "traditional." He correctly pointed out that up until very recently, it was "traditional" not to allow people from other races marry, and that it was "traditional" to deny women the right to vote. "Just because something is a tradition," he said, "doesn't make it right." And the crowd went wild. Several times, actually.
He also shrugged off comments of people who say he's damaging his own career in politics by championing this cause. "I don't care about what happens to me," he exhorted. "I care about what happens to you, I care about what happens to your spouse, to your families, to your children, to your parents, to your optometrist...." OK, I made up the optometrist part.
All in all, it was a fantastic experience. Afterward, C'pher and I had lunch in the beautiful spring sunshine outside the Asian Art Museum before I went to my afternoon at work. We pinched ourselves for the ba-zillionth time and realized all over again how lucky we are to live in San Francisco.
Posted by kyle at February 14, 2005 1:28 PM