Wednesday is September 16, Grito de Delores or Independence Day. It is the date Robin and I were very publicly wed as part of a the GLBT celebration of this holiday in San Antonio. But like Mexico who honors several days as part of their Fiesta del Patrias, so it is we celebrate several days as anniversary. Here is how it happened.
I first began seeing Robin in September, 1999. We knew fairly quickly that this was something very special. That Thanksgiving she moved in and our real commitment began then. That year Thanksgiving fell on November 25, but we ordinarily celebrate the anniversary on Thanksgiving each year.
It was later that I realized we might be able to be legally married using the court case for Christie Littleton as our justification. We tried in Houston, but I learned they would not let me marry anyone, male or female. So it was that I contacted my attorney. We went to San Antonio amidst a furor of media attention, and obtained a marriage license. The glbt community in San Antonio were simply wonderful during that time, and they hosted and arranged our wedding for us. The day set for the wedding was September 16, to correlate with the Fiesta Del Grito de Delores. It was a wonderful day, complete with entertainment, a beautiful cake, media coverage, and of course the inevitable protesters.
One concern at the time amidst all the media hooplah was what the religious right wing might do to throw a wrench into the works. So it was decided that Robin and I would quietly slip over to San Antonio on September 10 and be quietly married and file the marriage at the court house. If then the religious wrong showed up with an injunction, we had a certificate all ready to show and they would be powerless to act. So it was we actually were legally wed on the tenth, but celebrated it publicly on the 16th.
Funny story about the evening of the tenth. We got a hotel room. That night about 9:00 or so, we got a call. It was a guy from Reuters. No doubt quite proud that he had run us down to this hotel in San Antonio. We had a lengthy phone interview with him and hung up. He may have found us at the hotel, but he totally missed we had been married that day. I only started talking about it a year or so ago, so it seems there are some things that can be kept from the press.
Which brings us to this week. Last Thursday we had a quiet celebration and over the weekend went out to eat. Wednesday we will do something special to mark the moment as well. We have been together ten years now, 9 years of it legally married though we both understand that what the courts give can be taken away.
What they cannot take away is the love and affection we have for each other. We remain two old sneakers, completely comfortable with each other and still very much in love. That I think is about all anyone could ever hope for.
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