to love and to cherish

Today in California couples were married, as with any other day, pledging their love and commitment in front of the world, and gaining about 1400 rights with that. Yesterday, many of those couples were considered inferior citizens and denied those rights (and in other states even basic individual rights like freedom from hate violence).

These rights, like being allowed beside your partner in the hospital when they are dying, are still contested viciously by well funded bigots. But today is a day of celebration. It is a day to celebrate the bonds of love that no individual, hate group or government can deny. And just as interracial marriage is not often persecuted, so to I hope one day, without fear of retaliation, to say:

"I, Gerod Rody, take you (Groom), to be my husband, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish; from this day forward until death do us part."