On May 28, my fianc/, Jason (Gift), and I did not get married. We had a beautiful wedding, to which our family and friends came and celebrated our "non-marriage" with us.

Instead of getting a marriage certificate we signed a domestic partnership agreement, wrote up wills, a directive to physicians, and a document giving each other power of attorney. Together, these four documents grant us almost all of the same rights as a marriage certificate.

Jason and I decided to enter into a domestic partnership in order to advocate for fairness towards our friends who cannot get married due to current laws. The ceremony on May 28 gave us spiritual and family recognition of our commitment and the domestic partnership agreement gave us the ability to legally protect each other.

In our minds, legal and religious partnerships have nothing to do with each other and the state and federal government have no place discriminating against committed life partners based on their genders or sexual orientation.

We very much enjoyed the ceremony and, although we know that our share of trials lay ahead, we plan to face them together and live happily ever after.

Alice Enevoldsen

Genesee