#we_do

"They came to sit & dangle their feet off the edge of the world & after awhile they forgot everything but the good & true things they would do someday."

Matt and Raymie are applying for a marriage license today in Hamblen County Tennessee. This post should be one where I am celebrating that fact that my best friends is getting married today. I should be awaiting for pictures from witnesses at the court house documenting the happy couple signing the license, their reactions to the court making legal their binding love and of course that classic newly married kiss. And this newlywed couple should be able to plan their future knowing that there are new benefits and new securities added to their relationship now that it is recognized by the state. 

But this is not that post.

This post is a post to celebrate the fact that today, my best friend and his wonderful partner are apply for a marriage licence  in their hometown in Tennessee. And since they live in Tennessee this post is also about the fact that this loving couple will be denied a marriage licences today. Their request will not be recognized by the court and they will be asked to leave. They will not leave today with the pictures I described above. They will not leave today with the with the benefits and reassurances granted to straight married couples. They will not leave today having their love and family recognized by the government.  

But they will leaving today knowing that their love is a thread being added to the fabric of this struggle. They will leave today knowing that their life together is a living, breathing inspiration to those around them and all those that will be touched and changed by their story. They will leave today knowing that they are intimately connected to all those who have and will stand where they are standing. They will leave today knowing it is only a matter of time before this unsustainable machine of oppression breaks apart at the seams. They will leave today knowing that their love is brave and fierce.  They will leave today knowing that we are winning. They will today having spoken truth to power.