A Houston couple will get married in a hot air balloon over New Mexico after winning $5,000 in an online competition designed to promote civil rights.<\/p>\n
The contest called My Big Gay Illegal Wedding was run by the American Civil Liberties Union with five winners chosen through an online vote. \u00a0The ACLU launched the contest back in December to highlight the plight of couples who were still not able to get married in their home state.<\/p>\n
James Esseks, director of the ACLU\u2019s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Project, said the wedding contest highlights the type of problems faced by gay couples in the nearly 30 states where marriage-equality lawsuits have been filed. \u00a0\u00a0Couples living in states where same-sex marriage is still illegal had to come up with crazy ideas for how they would travel to a state where they were allowed to tie the knot.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe live in this crazy time, with a patchwork of protections, where you can go across the border and get married,\u201d he said. \u201cThe problem is that when you turn around and go back, you\u2019re not going to be considered married by your home states. That\u2019s not the way it should work in America.\u201d<\/p>\n
Contest winners for Texas are Jeff Robertson and Jeremiah Pyant of Houston. Pyant, a flight attendant, and Robertson, an ad executive, met four years ago aboard a plane that Pyant was working on. They got engaged in December and hope to marry aboard a hot air balloon taking off from El Paso, Texas, where same-sex marriage is banned, and fly over the border into New Mexico, where same sex marriage is legal.<\/p>\n
Once they reach New Mexican air space they will be married by a wedding official who will be on board with them.<\/p>\n
“It’s exciting, we’re excited to go in a hot air balloon from El Paso to New Mexico,” said Robertson, who says he has no idea how long the ride will be. “I just expect there to be lots of champagne.”<\/p>\n
For all the couples, the fast pace of gay-marriage litigation has added some extra excitement to the wedding planning.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs soon as we entered the contest, the court decisions started coming out,\u201d said Jeff Robertson. \u201cWe\u2019re living a civil rights movement right before our eyes.\u201d<\/p>\n
“We wanted to highlight the fact that marriage equality doesn’t extend to everyone,” said Rebecca Robertson, legal and policy director for the ACLU in Texas. “As people get to know the couples in these situations, learn the real impact on their lives, public opinion often changes,” Robertson said in February.<\/p>\n
The ACLU has an open guest book on the competition website. Five people who sign will be chosen to win an all-expense paid trip to New York for Robertson and Pyant’s reception.\u00a0Houston’s winning couple will also have an event in Robertson’s home town of Milwaukee later in the year.<\/p>\n
“This is our marriage in the name of equal rights,” said Robertson of his aerial wedding set for April 29.<\/p>\n