Man One:
Thank you family and friends for being here today.

Man Two:
We never thought we would ever be standing on a real marriage alter. We are delighted to think of future generations of gay couples growing up with legally sanctioned marriage a given; the natural manifestation of a loving, committed relationship. As we rejoice here today, we felt it was appropriate, to take a few moments to acknowledge the long road that has led to our new found freedom to be come a legally married couple.

Man One:
We know many older gay couples endured the pain of having to live in the closet for decades, unable to acknowledge their love for one another. We know throughout history there were gay men whose careers would have been toppled if the world had known they were gay. How sad it is to think that creative geniuses like Walt Whitman, Michael Angelo, or Ralph Waldo Emerson had to hide such an important part of themselves. How tragic to think that they gave so much to the world, but the world, at that time would never have given them the simple right to choose who they loved.

Man Two:
We also know that until durable power of attorney for health care and body disposition legislation was enacted a short time ago, male partners were sometimes unable to care for their partners during illness or at death. We’ve known partners of ten years who were denied the right to sit at their life partners’ bedside as they passed away; we’ve known partners who were given no say in arranging their loved one’s funeral; we’ve known partners who were not given their partner's cremated ashes because family members objected. It was these kinds of painful experiences that motivated all of us to keep fighting for acceptance and legal sanction of our unions.

Man One:
We hereby want to thank each and every gay activist for the part they played in winning our freedom to stand here today. We would now like to invite ___________ forward to officiate our marriage.

Officiate:
______ and_______ I am honored to have this privilege to officiate at your marriage ceremony. Family and friends. Please witness as ______ and ______ join their lives in marriage

Man One:
______, I stand here today to pronounce to the world that I want you to become my spouse. What I mean by that is that I intend to share my life with you for better or for worse. I intend to celebrate your triumphs with you, and comfort you during the painful, challenging times.

Man Two:
______, I stand here today to pronounce to the world that I want you to become my spouse. I want to be there for you in good times and bad. I look forward to working together to achieve our dreams and goals.

Man One:
I know a lot of single people. I cannot even imagine my life without you in it. All the things I treasure in life; a nice dinner with good wine, front row seats to a great play, watching the dog frolic at the dog park, or strolling the corridors of the Louvre, are joyous experiences because I share them with you.

Man Two:
Likewise, all my life experiences are made richer when I share them with you. Perhaps the most important thing in the world is to be able to share your experiences with another person and know that they “get” you, they understand your angst, or know how much a certain achievement means to you. Thanks for “getting” me.

Man One:
I hereby pledge today to do all I can to nurture the deep passion that we share. I think that physical passion is an important part of a relationship. I also know that tending to the emotional relationship underlying the physical relationship is what keeps the physical passion alive.

Man Two:
I also treasure the physical passion we share and promise to feed that passion by feeding the deep soul connection that caused us to fall in love. There are, of course, ebbs in the passion and those are scary times. But we have been able to weather the rough times and renew our passion.

Man One:
I am also grateful that we both keep in mind our goal to sustain a long-term partnership. We are therefore able to weather the challenging times believing that we will rediscover our passion, if we are patient. We have seen plenty of partnerships fail, and feel proud that we have always stuck it out and found that we did, in fact, grow to love one another in new ways.