As conservatives seek to overturn marriage equality, LGBTQ+ couples are coming together to show that their love is stronger.
GLAAD’s new campaign aims to spotlight gay couples and is soliciting submissions from people whose lives have been improved by having the legal right to marry. I’m glad I found you “Married queer couples find each other and celebrate their joy just like any other couple making a life-changing decision.”
“Just like in any good love story, some people meet and become cute, others meet later, others end up together against incredible odds, and some feel a spark that still burns decades later,” said Darian Aaron, GLAAD’s senior director of news in the U.S. South. defender. “Eleven years after marriage equality became law, we are still discovering that love is love and that all couples who marry want the same thing: to be a family and to be there for each other. Accurate LGBTQ storytelling demystifies and humanizes everything, including our marriages and relationships, and bridges the gaps that others seek to build.”
One of the couples featured is Brandon Davis and Davey Roberts, business owners from Asheville, North Carolina, whose cafe and bar was destroyed by Hurricane Helen just 31 days after opening. The couple didn’t expect word of mouth, but donations poured in and they were able to open their new space, which is twice the size, just four months later.
“GLAAD has always been a source of guidance for me when I’ve felt lost,” Davis says. “They represent love, grace, and humanity. This organization has always spotlighted those working to build queer communities, and we are honored that our bar, DayTrip, has caught their attention.”
Another couple featured is TikTok’s Rainbow Aunties, Marilyn Johnson Jordan and Wilma J. Scales, both 61, who have been together since they were 20. Jordan followed Scales to New Orleans, leaving her husband after the former joined the U.S. Coast Guard. In the days of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” even young children called them “mom” and “auntie” until Mr. Scales left in 1998. The couple married shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a landmark ruling in 2014.
“After years of living in silence and suffocating, we wanted to live as loudly as possible,” Jordan said. happy.
Matty Maggiacomo and Evan Feeley, who met on Grindr just before the coronavirus pandemic, will also appear. They stayed in touch despite social distancing, talking on the phone and FaceTime every night and sending each other handwritten letters. The two moved in together in 2021 and the rest was history.
“We hope the GLAAD I Found You campaign not only serves as a source of inspiration and expression, but also showcases the beautiful diversity within our community, especially in a time when DEI is wrongly seen as a weakness,” Aaron continued. “The stories featured on GLAAD I Found You deserve to be on the front page, not just a sidebar or a niche feature.”
Click to read the full story about the couple and other LGBTQ+ couples. here. Click to submit your love story for consideration for publication on the GLAAD platform here.
Source: Advocate.com – www.advocate.com
