Numbers Matter: Wedding Season IS Voting Season
Numbers matter...
The date of your wedding matters: it's a series of numbers you'll remember for the rest of your life.
The number 18,000 matters: it's the number of LGBTQ+ couples who wed throughout the state of California in the summer of 2008 when same-gender marriage was enacted there for several months prior to the passage of the notorious Proposition 8.
1100 is the number of rights and responsibilities that LGBTQ+ couples were denied, when marriage rights, civil unions or broadly-defined domestic partnerships were not permitted in our nation.
5 United States Supreme Court justices overturned Roe v. Wade. Those same 5, perhaps, are poised to overturn Obergefell vs Hodges and with it, national marriage equality.
The year 2024 matters, and the date November 5 matters. This of course is the final day we have to vote in this year's presidential election; the final day we have to vote for many other elected officials as well. Millions upon millions of us will cast our ballots that day, and in the weeks leading up to it during the period of early voting. Millions and millions: a collective number that certainly matters.
Numbers matter. They impact. They change the measure of things.
Here at RainbowWeddingNetwork.com, we launched our site 24 years ago, just as one state in the Union was beginning to enact civil union legislation. Since that time, we have met with tens of thousands of couples and wedding vendors all across the nation during our tour of LGBTQ+ wedding expos, and many tens of thousands more online.
Our team has experienced quite a few election cycles within the span of RWN's existence, and witnessed the ping pong ball dynamics that have taken place this past quarter century with regard to marriage rights for the LGBTQ+ community... We can state unequivocally that elections matter, each and every one.
If you have not yet done so, we urge you to research the candidates seeking office in your locale; as well as the issues and legislative proposals on your ballot, both broadly and in specific terms.
Most of all, don't let anything get in the way of your plan to vote.
Because that is the number, perhaps, that matters most: One Vote, one powerful voice behind that vote. Yours. And it represents you, and your rights, and your family, and your future.