"Love has no gender..."

It makes me very proud to have had two of our wedding pictures selected for this Courage Campaign "igualdad" advertisement. The pictures, especially the one showing "the kiss" part of our ceremony, always puts a little knot in my throat as I remember what an incredibly beautiful day that was, and how perfect everything was from the passion roses to the clear color of the Pacific Ocean, to the way Captain Chuck's white uniform and Alma's Veracruzana dress and the black embroidery of the Virgen de Guadalupe on my white guayabera all stood out against the colorful Mexican dresses of our flower girls, ring bearers, and madrinas. It's almost our one-year anniversary and I can still relive every moment of that perfect day in which our families and closest friends came together to celebrate and honor our love and union. It's a bittersweet memory, however, when just a few months later the retrograde people of this State overturned the right to marry for gays and lesbians. What I love about these Courage Campaign ads, in English and Spanish, is that they put that right into the context of other civil rights struggles which have been won through the unity of open hearts and minds. As Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz once said, "love has no gender, love is our very soul."