sane wedding planning

wedding related ramblings revolving around sanity and practicality, with a little bit of geekery and crazy just for fun!

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Washington Senate Passes Gay Marriage Bill

Last night the Washington state Senate voted 28-21 to pass the gay marriage bill, and I was there to see it happen.

As awesome as it was to be in a room full of passionate people watching this all unfold, the part that will stick with me the longest is those few minutes it took for each senator to cast their vote. As the secretary was calling roll, I saw many couples holding hands, squeezing each other out of love and support (and nerves). 

The couple in front of me were nestled together, one tucked perfectly into the shoulder of the other. 

The woman at the end of my aisle had her head buried in her partners lap, she couldn't even look at the screen. 

The little girl who was there with her two mom's was tapping her feet, looking very anxious, holding both their hands.

We were all holding our breath. The tension and the excitement, you could almost taste it. And when the final tally was announced, the whole room exploded. Everyone jumped up, there were high fives, hugs, arms thrown in the air for victory. The group in front of me, one woman embraced the other two and said "I can't wait to get my wedding invitation!"

It was electrifying. Awesome. F*cking amazing!

There were so many great moments to come out of this debate, I wish I could put them all here in this post to remember them. Rather, I will link to some  written highlights here, and you can watch the full debate here. It's a little long, but, as Senator Murray (the main sponsor of the bill) said, “it was one of the best debates I've ever seen in my time in the Legislature ... and when we finally won, it was incredibly moving.” You can see Sen Regala at about the 58 minute mark, talking about why the definition of marriage should be updated to reflect the times (and how it has changed over the centuries) and Sen Ranker right after, talking about being raised by a gay father. Those two, alone, are worth the watch. 

Grab a tissue while you watch. 

And a glass of champagne, baby, because this is moving forward!


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