I can't even see the keyboard as I type this on my Android phone right now due to the flood of tears.
"Today's decision may cause uneasiness and concern about the change it will bring, Mississippi continues to change in ways its people could not anticipate even 10 years ago. Allowing same-sex couples to marry, however, presents no harm to anyone. At the very least, it has the potential to support families and provide stability for children.", U.S. District Court Judge Carlton Reeves said late in evening on the cold day of November 25, 2014 in the 72-pages of historical gold which struck down the ban on same-sex marriage in the state of Mississippi, pending a two week stay.
Yeah y'all- Mississippi just did that.
Despite the outcome fourteen days from now or in the paltry months that follow, the Mississippi children who were born on November 25, 2014 and every day after that, will never know what it feels like to live in a state where they can not be married. My friends and love ones, my family, will be married here not just there. I can get married in a forest of magnolias to the man who is brave enough.
#WeAreNotLast.
On November 12th, only two weeks ago from today, Andrea Sanders and Becky Bickett, along with their friends Carla and her wife Joce, walked into the U.S. Federal Courthouse in Mississippi' s capitol city of Jackson where they sought to right a wrong that had been committed. The transgression against them was that their home state had failed to realize that these four women, and countless others who live in this state, are humans- that they are people who should be treated like people.
Accompanied by their attorney Roberta Kaplan and the superstar team from Campaign for Southern Equality, they sat down in a room full of support and love behind them praying for the change that we all deserve.
Wives sat clutching each other's hands in that cold little courtroom, while potential husbands were pacing outside in the unusually cold November winds; each waiting with tactile anticipation for the same thing, but, for different reasons. Waiting for the words which would allow for those wives to be told they are now married legally married in Mississippi, for that man outside to call his partner and be married; this was all we waited for that day.
After two sleepless weeks of never leaving the phone unattended, never signing out of Facebook, after two full weeks of hearing that damned Messenger ping going off seventy-two times an hour- we got the ping we were waiting for and our lives, our pain, our struggle, and journey were all realized in the blink of an eye.
Though we understand that there is a fourteen day stay on this decision, and that Governor Phil Bryant will most definitely seek an appeal, we also know that today is the day that history was made. This is a day of celebration across our state, and should be across the nation. If a state like Mississippi can deem marriage equality as not only the right thing to do, but also the beneficial thing to do, then the other 14 states kinda have to agree. Y'all don't want us to beat you on this. We are last in everything, but in this-
#WeAreNotLast.
None of the celebration that has and will forever be had due to this occasion would have ever been possible without the dedication and drive of a small, yet giant group of people who can not be forgotten. The wonderful Jasmine Beach-Ferrara, Aaron Sarver, and Lindsey Simerly of Campaign for Southern Equality and the inspiration that has grappled the hearts of hundreds of individuals across the South like Leiana and Alison who just welcomed their son into the world, or Sara and LB who not only also have a new baby boy in their family, but also founded The Spectrum Center- an LGBT community center in Hattiesburg, MS- the lives of LGBT Mississippians is a new world than what any of us knew or dreamed possible. With organizations like Dandelion Project Ministries and Gulf Coast Rainbow Center, a movement was born last year that has sparked a new fire of belief and passion in the hearts of our people. Though we have so much more to accomplish after marriage, there is no denying that a triumph has occurred for all of us in the community. A truth has been realized in that, before we knew we were LGBT, we knew we were Mississippians. On that basis, the laws of the state should represent, protect, and, honor us as it does all.
#WeAreNotLast.
#WeAreMississippi.