I know I will tear up as Del and Phyllis get married (again) in San Francisco and as Robin Tyler and her wife Diane finally get the license they have demanded year after year at Los Angeles City Hall. We are surely standing on their shoulders. I will never forget Mark Leno marrying Leah and I on February 2004 (later rescinded). While nothing will ever mean as much emotionally as when we exchanged vows in 2003, the joy - and subsequent pain - of our SF ceremony touched us deeply. My friends in the media (yes, we do have some) took some joy and perverse pleasure is splashing our picture online, as you can see.

So Pride '08 will surely be remembered as the year we could finally marry in California. As I prepare to work at NYC Pride, privileged to have as clients like the NYC Center (celebrating 25 years of community and vision and also Grand Marshals) and SAGE (celebrating 30 years of great work with an often invisible part of our community - LGBT seniors), the shoulders I am riding on will be right there with me. Richard Burns, the director of the Center for over 20 years and an extraordinary activist whom I admire greatly, will see his staff and volunteers recognized for their work in creating a home in NYC for all of us. Any time I spend with SAGE feels like an honor - especially when I see women like Jerre Kalbas, a founding member of SAGE, still actively volunteering at 90 years old (social committees only, thank you very much, she is still a party girl!).

This has already been quite a month to be proud of and we are only halfway through!

I leave for the office this morning knowing that every client has a stake in the CA decision and that we have a unique opportunity to tell our community's stories in so many ways - from the Family Equality Council families who have stepped up and spoken to USA Today and the Center staffer getting married in LA later this month who has spoken to more media than I can mention, to the senior couples finally getting the opportunity in their lifetime (something most never anticipated) to have their relationships legally recognized to the staff of the Advocate, who have been covering this issue for decades and have a thing or two to teach the mainstream media about history and how to cover this historic event well. We will all be busy.

I see the excitement in the eyes of our new summer interns, but it has not escaped them that the same excitement is in in our eyes too. It is clear to me that these are not young people with no sense of history - they know more than me in some ways - and are seasoned activists in their own right. I guess at the end of the day we are all standing on each others' shoulders in one way or another.