Wedding bells may soon ring in new era for LGBT rights

Today the Student Coalition for Marriage Equality SCME will host its fourth annual same-sex wedding ceremony ““ a tradition that we at SCME hope may be coming to a close.

Since SCME was founded in January 2005, the wedding has been our biggest event every year . We have continued the tradition because it embodies everything we as a club represent ““ civil rights and the people they effect.

The first half of the event is an opportunity for people from the club and the community to speak about the over 1100 rights denied to same-sex couples just because of their gender. Then an actual committed, same-sex couple exchanges vows in front of the UCLA community. We get to see what marriage means to a real family and finally put a face to all of the abstract political discussions.

This year the beautiful couple, Tom Keegan and Davidson Lloyed, will be celebrating 31 loving years together and their 9-year-old daughter will walk them down the aisle. We’re also very proud to announce that West Hollywood Mayor Pro Tempore Jeffrey Prang will be our keynote speaker. This year another family, one from UCLA, will also share their personal story and what marriage equality means to them. On top of all of this, SCME at UCLA will be holding this year’s wedding simultaneously with another wedding being hosted by the SCME chapter at UC Berkeley.

We hope this is the last mock-ceremony we ever host because the possibility of legal same-sex marriage in California is actually on the horizon this year. On March 4, 2008, the California Supreme Court heard oral arguments on a case looking to legalize same-sex marriage in California, and the court must release their ruling by early June. Many have speculated that the court will rule in favor of marriage equality, finally granting the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community the civil rights they deserve.

This makes SCME’s wedding event even more important this year. Through our partnership with UC Berkeley, we’re turning up the volume on the student activism to show the Supreme Court and the California community at large that the time for change is now. By banding together we can show that students still care about civil rights and that we’re willing to fight for them, helping to create an environment where the Supreme Court has no choice but to do the right thing.

At the same time, this year’s wedding event will also aid in the fight against a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. For the past few weeks, anti-LGBT groups have been part of a coalition paying signature gatherers to collect enough signatures to get the Limits on Marriage petition on the ballot this November, which if passed would permanently ban same-sex marriage in California. To combat this, SCME has been working with the group Equality for All, a statewide public education campaign to stop the initiative. We will be using the wedding event as an opportunity to educate people more about the campaign and find more volunteers for the final weekend to stop this petition from advancing.

I have watched this club go from a small group of dedicated friends to one of the most active student LGBT-rights groups in the state, in part with the support of our amazing campus. Now I’m proud to say we have made a real impact in the community and have the opportunity to do it again.

Zwass is a fourth-year sociology student and is the president of the Student Coalition for Marriage Equality.

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