A California couple who married 20 years ago during San Francisco’s “Winter of Love” got a chance to reconnect with their officiant — who is now vice president of the United States.
Bradley Witherspoon and Raymond Cabone were married on Feb. 14, 2004 during a 29-day period in which then-Mayor Gavin Newsom challenged legal norms by permitting same-sex couples to obtain marriage licenses, defying federal and state regulations. Witherspoon and Cabone were among the nearly 4,000 couples who wed before the California Supreme Court nullified the marriages performed later that year.
Their union was officiated by Vice President Kamala Harris, who was then district attorney in San Francisco. The couple spoke to Harris on Monday ahead of their 20-year anniversary in a FaceTime call shared with NBC News.
“I never thought about getting married and what that would mean, but once we got the opportunity to do so, it meant a lot to me,” Witherspoon told Harris during the call. “I think that was part of the emotion as well; being denied something for so long, thinking that it would not happen in my lifetime, and to see it happen.”
Cabone said he was “really surprised” to see Harris on his wedding day because he had previously crossed paths with her professionally when he worked for a consulting firm in the city. “It was a very emotional day. I remember crying, and looking over and seeing Kamala crying, and hugging each other at the end of it.”
During the call, Harris reflected on the significance of the time period for San Francisco’s LGBTQ community.
“I reflect on that weekend with such a fond memory of what it meant for so many people. But for the two of you, I mean, I didn’t fully appreciate how many people were in loving, committed relationships, and just legally were not able to seal the deal … and how unfair that was,” Harris said.
The couple had been together for nearly 20 years before getting wed. They met in line at a McDonald’s in Detroit, where Witherspoon asked Cabone if they could sit together. When they finally got a chance to marry, they told Harris that it was important for them to take advantage of an opportunity they never previously saw for themselves.
Witherspoon and Cabone remarried over a decade after their 2004 marriage was nullified, when the U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-sex unions nationwide.
“It’s a really beautiful love story that has had an impact on history, and history has had an impact on your love story,” Harris said.
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Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
