The weather could have been better this morning. We woke up to a steady rain. It's always a bit of a debate whether to brave the elements with Ben. By lunchtime, the rain had slowed to a sporadic sprinkle. After a failed attempt at a nap for Benjamin, we packed up and headed out. We drove downtown instead of taking the train. I can only take so much humanity.

When we came out of the parking garage, the rain picked up. Ben thought it was hysterical. Of course.. he was on my back in his carrier with shiela holding our umbrella over him while she and i were getting soaked. Ben thought this was great fun! We took cover in the McDonald's down near Quincy Market.. along with half the city. Again with the humanity.

At 1:30, we decided to chance the weather (or start heading to the car). When we got outside, we found that the rain had stopped. The clouds were still threatening, but for the moment, we were dry. We headed across the street to City Hall.

As we walked up the hundred or so stairs to the side of the building, I reminded Shiela how we "got domestic partnered" there several years ago. I needed to go on Shiela's medical insurance at the time and so we "tied the knot". It wasn't the most romantic event of our lives. We met at City Hall.. filled out some paperwork and wrote a check for about $60. We swore under oath that we were who we were and that we were a couple. Whatever. We got a piece of paper and it was enough to add me to Shiela's insurance (we won't talk about how we get penalized during tax time because of the "extra income").



A lot of people think that as long as same-sex couples are given the same legal rights as heterosexual couples, that this is equal and fair. I honestly used to be one of them. Prior to MA becoming the first state to legally allow gay couples to wed, I remember hoping for civil unions to be allowed in other states besides Vermont. I honestly hadn't really thought about it.

When the Supreme Court of MA ruled that denying marriage to same-sex couples was unconstitutional, things changed. Shiela and I talked about the option of getting married at this point and decided that we didn't want to "jump on the bandwagon" and that we'd rather wait until the legal issues were a little more stable and understandable.

There came a point, shortly after we started trying to conceive Ben, that we changed our minds. It was during a trip to Connecticut to visit my family. We often have our best conversations during the 2 hour drive to and from CT. We got onto the subject of marriage and before you knew it, we were coming up with ideas for the celebration.

Neither of us are ones to like to have attention drawn to us. I've long thought that a wedding was a horrible way to spend 40 grand. What is worse than getting into uncomfortable clothing and making nice with relatives and friends who you barely know.. blah blah blah. Of course.. this all changed once I got into the swing of it all. We planned a day that was fitting for us. Our ceremony was at the Meeting House of Storrowton Village, at the Big E fairgrounds. Our reception was at my parent's house in Windsor Locks. I even wore a dress. It was a hoot.



Let me tell you. The experience that day was a wedding and we got married. Those words are how I feel about the day and the commitment. I didn't realize until that day just how important the word "marriage" was for us. I can tell you.. the emotions that we felt on the day we were married were quite different from those that we felt when we got "domestic partnershipped".

Today, there was a National Protest against Proposition 8. The law that California just voted on which makes gay marriage illegal again in California. The difference between this and all of the other states who have passed similar laws is that there are already thousands of couples who are married. What happens to them? The Attorney General of California has said that he would not support any action to negate existing marriages. The Terminator Governor Schwarzenegger has also spoken out in support of gay marriage. Who knows how this will all play out.



We went to the Boston rally against Prop 8 this afternoon. It was an inspiring atmosphere. There were thousands of people of all backgrounds coming together in support of gay marriage. There were families, like ours, who were able to participate in such an event while feeling 100% safe. This is a luxury that we often taken for granted. I'm sure that in some areas of the country, there were rallies that had more than the 3 or four anti-gay-marriage protesters.

We had a good day. Ben thought that it was great fun to cheer along with the crowd.