 It's always an awkward situation at the front desk or the hotel the individual working at the desk will look at us perplexed You ordered a king-size bed. Is that really what you want? And it was certainly an awkward situation walking into the bank and asking saying my partner And I want to open a joint bank account and hearing you know a business account an LLC or an S corporation No, not my business partner my partner Being able to call him my husband is so definitive. It's something that everyone understands I'm a 45 year old woman and I have been in love with a woman for 10 years And I don't have a word to tell anybody about that the word marriage has a meaning if it wasn't so important We wouldn't be here today The civil union a Domestic partnership would relegate me to a level of second-class citizenship. Maybe even third-class citizenship It doesn't give due respect to the relationship that we've had for almost nine years Only marriage could do that I'd be able to stand alongside my parents and my brother and his wife To be able to stand together as one family who have all had the opportunity of being married and The pride that one feels when that happens