Rituals: A Relationship Where Marriage is Freedom

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Michael M. Grynbaum

Randy Florke (left) and Sean Patrick Maloney were married
at the Episcopal Church of St. Mary-in-the-Highlands, in Cold Spring, N.Y.

Mr. Florke, 51, and Mr. Maloney, 47, who was elected in 2012 as New York’s first openly gay congressman, were married last month at a church near their home in Cold Spring, N.Y., as their three children looked on. After two decades together, marriage was not a priority. But last year, Mr. Florke traveled to Washington to hear the arguments before the Supreme Court on same-sex marriage. He left profoundly shaken, hurt by the words of those who spoke against change; he thought of friends who died of AIDS and what they had missed. That summer, driving upstate, he heard on the radio that the court had struck down the Defense of Marriage Act — followed by the voice of Mr. Maloney, being interviewed about the decision. Mr. Florke felt something stir. “When something is not really accessible to you, part of your brain pretends like it doesn’t want it,” he said. [link]