My Wedding Engagement Photos

In an effort to keep the love alive today and fight back the frustration of having to wait out the weekend or possibly even longer, for some kind of statement from SCOTUS regarding The Defense of Marriage Act, I've decided to get sentimental and focus on how incredibly lucky I am.

Yup, that's me and my lovely bride. These are some of our favorites from our engagement session with photographer Brian Kraft at Red Rocks. Stay tuned for our wedding pictures, they're pretty too....

The Strength of the Strong

I am still celebrating the results of the election. For the first hour after it was confirmed that we would have four more years with Barack Obama as our president my wife sat on the couch concerned, expecting something terrible to happen. But the good news kept coming.  We couldn't believe our good fortune when Maine, Maryland, and Washington all voted for same sex marriage. Minnesotans were celebrating victory over an attempt at a same sex marriage ban and Iowa elected to keep Justice David Wiggins - one of the justices responsible for ruling to legalize same sex marriage in Iowa.

Then in Colorado we learned that the House and the Senate is now controlled by democrats and the new speaker is none other than openly gay Mark Ferrandino who will give civil unions a fair shot in Colorado this year - take that Frank McNulty!

We are feeling blessed. And when I think that maybe this is all too good to be true, that maybe, like my wife expected, something bad is going to happen to balance it all out - I remember all that we've had to go through just to get here. I remember the stories of the individuals whose struggles, tragedies, experience and endurance helped us to these victories. There is, of course, a long way to go before all LGBT Americans are treated equally under the law, but progress is so sweet.

One such story that was instrumental in legalizing same sex marriage in Washington State came to my attention last year when I heard a podcast from The Moth featuring Charlene Strong. This story hit me unaware and as a result I was bawling like a baby in public, so be warned, you may want to have some kleenex at the ready.

Incredible. But you know what else? Charlene Strong is incredible. After this terrible event in her life, she worked with all of her might to make sure it would never happen to anyone else. She championed legislation that became Washington State's Domestic Partnership Law, she was the subject of the award winning documentary "For My Wife," she's on Washington State's Human Rights Commission, and works like crazy doing interviews, speaking engagements, and writing articles supporting equality and social justice. In short, she's one badass activist that I personally want to thank for all that she's done for lesbiankind. For more information on Charlene Strong, visit her website

She's fantastic... and so is he.

Vote!

Here it is, election day! We've survived a season of election ads, insults, phone calls and junk mail. Now you have a job to do....vote vote vote!!!

"We are here in direct relation to the heroes and she-roes who paid with their lives for this right. Many of us are old enough to remember what it felt like to be told we could not register to vote without taking a test or paying a poll tax. Some were asked how many angels danced on a head of a pin, how many bubbles were in a bar of soap. We are here because four courageous college freshmen sat down at a lunch counter in Greensboro in 1960, four years before the passage of the Civil Rights Act, to make a stand for equality. It’s a terrible thing to obstruct access to the ballot. But we follow all those who had the courage to dare to live so we can dare to live. 

 Because of them, we are here. So vote to keep moving us forward. And carry with you your friends, family and neighbors. Carry them from your congregations, your beauty salons and barbershops, your sororities and fraternities. Carry with you those five people whose vote could make the difference. You may be pretty or plain, heavy or thin, gay or straight, poor or rich. But nobody has more votes than you. All human beings are more equal to each other than they are unequal. And voting is the great equalizer. It is important. It is imperative. There is no time for complacency." 

- Maya Angelou, writing for the Winston-Salem Journal.

So, here's a reminder (in case you still need one):
President/Vice President -----> Obama/Biden
Minnesota Marriage Amendment -----> Vote NO
Washington Approve Referendum 74 -----> Vote YES
Maine Question 1 -----> Vote YES
Maryland Question 6 -----> Vote YES
Iowa vote to keep Supreme Court Justice David Wiggins ----->Vote YES

For a list of pro-equality Colorado house and senate candidates visit: http://www.one-colorado.org/news/colorado-pro-equality-candidates/
For more information on marriage equality ballot issues visit: http://www.afer.org/election2012/