Hi guys, we are celebrating one year since the SCOTUS ruling. Just wanted to let you guys know what I've been up to since the ruling and some exciting news I have to share with you as well.
Last night at the Marriage festival. Pictured above is our amazing lawyers Dawn Elliott and Shannon Fauver. Second photo is of me and my Dads. Third photo is a picture of the festival. The Jack Daniels tent is where the marriages took place.
So this post is LONG overdue. I apologize as I have been incredibly busy since the ruling. I was at the Supreme Court with my ACLU family and the Bourke-Deleon Family the day of the ruling. I just want to thank each and every single of you guys who have supported my family and I. We have waited for this day for many years and the fact that it’s finally here is just indescribable. I have been saying all along that marriage is something everyone should be allowed to experience regardless of gender or sexual orientation.July 3rd actually marks my parents 7th wedding anniversary. They were married in Palm Springs in 2008, but they have been together for 23 years. It’s amazing!Â
Last night, I was able to go to a marriage equality festival here in Louisville where tons of couples got married. To be there and see that support was something I will always remember. The world is changing and I am happy to have had a part in history.Â
Once again, thank you guys so much for keeping up with me and this and blog. Hopefully this won’t be the last time you hear from me or my family.
I’m back on the steps of SCOTUS. Hoping today is the day that #lovewins!
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My two dads are facing the Supreme Court as plaintiffs in the freedom to marry case. Follow my family’s journey toward marriage equality nationwide. Sign the ACLU pledge.
What’s it like growing up with two dads? Bustle.com interviewed me, and I laid it out for them. Read it here.
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My two dads are facing the Supreme Court as plaintiffs in the freedom to marry case. Follow my family’s journey toward marriage equality nationwide. Sign the ACLU pledge.
Pride was an experience this year. Photo cred to Shannon Fauver. And thanks to my high school friend Joseph (despicablegay) for putting up with me at the festival this year.
My two dads are plaintiffs in the Supreme Court freedom to marry case. They have given multiple interviews over the course of the last six months, but I wanted to sit down with them. I had the chance to interview them and get a deeper glimpse into what they were thinking. I think interviewing was something more like pulling teeth because they kept going off on tangents, but I somehow pulled what I needed out of them. Here is what they had to say.
Q1: What would it mean for you if the ruling is overturned?
A: Randy: If the ruling is overturned, this would mean we would be able to offer our kids the assurance that their parents are legally married.
Paul: Well, I agree that obviously a decision in our favor, especially on question 1, would be very significant not to just our family, but we would be considered married here in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and would get all of the benefits married couples get.
Q2: How have these laws affected you all?
A: Randy: Well, they have made us feel vulnerable, which has prevented us from feeling comfortable to talk about our family to other people, to rest assured that our kids were not going to be taken away from us. It’s been a tough situation that we have always had to worry about.
Paul: Well, the laws have affected us in many ways. We pay taxes as Kentucky citizens, but we are treated as second class citizens. So, um, there are many benefits married couples get, that we cannot get, but the important thing is that a married couple can be legal parents to the same children. We have never in our twenty years of being parents have had the luxury and our kids have never had the luxury of knowing that both of their parents that raised them are their legal parents. There are other, benefits that married couples get as they grow old together. They can make health care decisions for each other, but your dad and I, we don’t know for sure if that would be the case for us.
Q3: How long have you guys been together?
Randy: Almost 24 years. (Anniversary is August 17)
Q4: What do you hope this ruling will show people if passed?
Randy: We are not second class citizens and we are just as important and as valid as everyone else.
Paul: Well same sex marriage is the law in many states. In 36 states and the District of Columbia, gay and lesbians can get married and there have been no ill effects because this has happened. It has only strengthened families because it has benefitted society.
Q5: If the ruling is ruled against marriage equality how will it affect your family?
Randy: Well, it was will require us to go right back to the same worry that we have always had, which include subjecting our family to discriminatory laws.
Paul: If they rule against us, we obviously will gain nothing and return to the same life we lived before, without having those protections. It will cause us to reevaluate where we want to spend the rest of our lives together, whether we want to continue to make Kentucky our home or not.
Q6: If the ruling is overturned, what comes next?
Randy: Well, we need to shift our focus over to ensuring that individuals like us have equal protection under the law and we need to include sexual orientation to the list of discrimination that should be prohibited in housing, accommodations, and employment.
Paul: I agree, especially in Kentucky, there are many states that have freedom to marry also have civil rights protections for gays and lesbians, but Kentucky does not. So if we were to get married today, we could still lose our jobs tomorrow and many parts of Kentucky. What would we look to see is a national protection for gays and lesbians to be a part of the civil rights protection.
Q7: How have your kids handled this?
Paul: They have been very supportive and real troopers because of the last two years we have moved at alarming rate with our family being at the focus of the Kentucky case. They’ve handled it with great ease and have been very supportive. It will be nice to get back to some normalcy and to focus on strengthening our family and being with our family instead of getting civil rights, which we think should already be ours.
Randy: Our kids have always realized that there are discriminatory laws that do not protect our family. They have been significant advocates for the cause.
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My two dads will face the Supreme Court as plaintiffs in the freedom to marry case. Follow my family’s journey toward marriage equality nationwide. Sign the ACLU pledge.
Wishing everyone a happy Pride month! This weekend is Pride in Louisville and it’s gonna be extra special this year. I’ll post some pics from tonight and tomorrows celebration.Â
“A Discussion of Bourke, et al. v. Beshear: A Conversation with Paul Campion & Randell Johnson.”
Campion and Johnson are plaintiffs in one of the pendingU.S. Supreme Court cases on marriage.
Saturday June 13th, 2015
The Robert H. Jackson Center
305 E. Fourth Street
Jamestown, NY 14701
7PM EST
My parents spoke last night at the Robert H. Jackson Center in Jamestown, NY last night regarding the pending SCOTUS decision. You can check out the UStream up above.Â
So as everyone knows, Bruce Jenner has officially made the transition into his new self, Caitlyn Jenner. Caitlyn made her official appearance on the cover of Vanity Fair magazine looking absolutely radiant. Yesterday, I was able to witness all of the love from not only the celebrities that were touched by her story, but by the general public who felt moved and compelled. Well today as I was scrolling through Twitter and Facebook, I saw a change.
We all have those friends who have their “opinions” aka those people who love to sugar coat their intolerance with posts that demean and ridicule other people and their life decisions. I decided today to do some spring cleaning on my Facebook page and it definitely was made easier by those people who had their intolerant “opinions.” Don’t get me wrong, I respect everybody and what they have to say, but when you sit there tear down a 65 year old woman because she was born a he, we are going to have some problems.
Caitlyn Jenner is absolutely relevant in this lifetime and in any lifetime because of the COURAGE it took to be honest with herself. For 65 years, she was living a lie, going through the motions of a happy life, when she was not 100% happy. While I understand that courage can be a man running into a burning buildling, or a solider running into a war zone, courage takes many different forms. Courage can also be coming out to your family or standing up to a bully. Courage should not be classified by just one action.Â
By Caitlyn coming out, she has saved many lives. Imagine how many suicides have been prevented. Imagine how many people finally accepted themselves for who they really are. That’s what we should be talking about. That is why Caitlyn Jenner is important, don’t take away her moment because you are not comfortable with it. Everyone is different, but more importantly, everyone is beautiful. So my final thoughts are, before you go making snide remarks about a person’s struggle, think about what they have gone through in life and how it affects them.
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