I've told
Tina (in a cutesy, flirty way) in the past that I love her so much that I'd marry her again a million times
. I never thought that we'd ever HAVE to get married more than once though. LOL
Here in CT, we've had same-sex civil unions since October of 2005. We were excited in 2007 to be able to have our own civil union ceremony on January 1, 2007. That to me will always be our wedding anniversary. It was a small group of some of our closest friends and family and couldn't have been a sweeter, more romantic ceremony. Everything about it was perfect. She was perfect in her jeans and what I now call her "wedding top" with tears running down her cheeks. Yup, perfect.
Since Tina has always wanted that big, all out wedding with her "pretty white dress", we had planned to do that sometime in the future when we could better swing it financially. This is still our plan and believe me, I want more than anything to see my girl walk down the aisle in that white dress. I want to have that first dance at our wedding reception to our wedding song.
Last year in CT, full marriage equality legislation was passed for same-sex couples in our state, and until October of 2010, it is still legal to choose to get a civil union as well. It has never been legal for a opposite-sex or "straight" couple to have a civil union since they've always been elligible for full on marriage. This October 1, 2010, the only option for any couple in CT will be marriage, and all civil unions will automatically be converted into marriages. This leaves us wondering if we are even considered married right now in CT since I'm legally male now and we are still in a civil union until October.
Last month I began looking into how to change my name/sex on our civil union certificate and I'm so glad I did. I'm glad because I found out that it is not possible to make such a change on a civil union or marriage certificate! Immediately I freaked out because that meant that I'd always be married under my birth name/sex. So if I ever have to produce my marriage certificate in the future for any reason to prove our marriage occurred, I'd have to out myself as transgender and go through explaining myself.
So I saught legal advice from
GLAD and am I
glad I did. A very nice lawyer promptly replied to my email and told me that the only way to get my new legal name/sex on my marriage certificate would be to marry Tina again before October 1st. Once we do that, we are legally man and wife. Wow, just saying that is cool. If we don't do it, the only way to legally be married under my new name/sex would be to get divorced and remarried. Yeah, really.
Conveniently enough, our community center's annual Pride festivities will be including a mass wedding by a local Justice of the Peace. We thought it would be fun to join the festivities and tie the knot with the group at Pride, only it isn't looking much like there will be a group! We are the only couple registered to marry so far.
So, if you're going to be in or near CT on June 19th, we'd love your company at our wedding so come see me marry her again! Other local bloggers will be there, in addition to some friends and family who live in the area.
You're also invited to the Pride after party to celebrate the awesomeness of being LGBTQ along with our marriage because the after party is going to double a mass wedding reception where couples can slow dance to thair wedding song spun by the coolest ipod DJ I know! We'll have music, drinks (limited open bar – beer, wine, shots), snacks and good fun for everyone for a low cover of $20 at the door. Come party with us, blog friends! There are certain out of towners who know they've got a place to crash if they decide to show up
If you want to get married at Pride right along with us, we'd LOVE to share an anniversary with you! Hit me up for more information
Love you baby.
