Sarah & Markie

This reflection was written by Sarah and Markie, a married same-sex couple raising two children.

Three months after my wife and I started dating, at the age of 20, we went to a protest because Prop 8 had passed in California. We were photographed and interviewed, and ended up on the front page of The Seattle Times. This is how I came out to my entire family.

Eight years later, in 2016, we were finally able to have the wedding of our dreams. We got married at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles, in front of our 200 favorite people and several taxidermy elephants. It was so perfect. Our cocktail hour was around the dinosaurs in the atrium of the museum. We were so lucky to have the wedding we’d put together, and so lucky to have family who was willing to help us.

My parents died when I was young, so we chose to walk down the aisle together instead of with parents. Now, I can’t imagine it any other way. It was such an incredible celebration. Our officiant was a close friend, who happened to be part of the committee that rewrote the vows for the Episcopalian church to include [LGBTQ+] couples. The whole day was magical.

I proposed to my wife underwater – she is an avid scuba diver, and so I learned to dive in secret, and, with the help of our diving friends, snuck up on her underwater and proposed.

We are now raising two beautiful children together.