|
 The nuptials of Danny Leclair, 45, and Aubrey Loots, 42, who have
been together for 12 years and own a local chain of hair salons,
marked the first same-sex marriage on a Rose Parade float in the
125-year history of the annual event, organizers said.
In the past, two heterosexual couples have tied the knot during Rose
Parades — in 1989 and last year.
Leclair and Loots made it official aboard a float shaped like a
wedding cake coated in white coconut chips, accented with red kidney
beans and festooned with 12,000 roses and other floral decorations,
said Ged Kenslea, a spokesman for the AIDS Healthcare Foundation.
The foundation sponsored the float to celebrate same-sex marriage
and the role it can play in helping to reduce new HIV infections
among gay men, he said.
The minister who performed the wedding, Alfreda Lanoix, an openly
lesbian reverend for the Unity Fellowship Church of Christ, tossed
handfuls of rose petals into the air to mark the completion of the
ceremony.
The parade was witnessed by an estimated 700,000 spectators who
lined the 5 1/2 mile procession route and by millions of viewers
tuning into one of several networks carrying the event live in the
United States and broadcasting it around the world. The parade also
was live-streamed over the Internet.
WEDDING FLOAT TAKES THE CAKE
The wedding float ended up winning the tournament's Isabella Coleman
Award for "best presentation of color and color harmony through
floral use."
In the parade procession, the wedding float was in a lineup that
included a high school marching band from Reno, Nevada, a float
sponsored by the city of Beverly Hills, and another float sponsored
by the Lutheran Laymen's League featuring a banner that said: "Jesus
Welcomes All."
Joining the newlyweds on the float was a married lesbian couple,
Sharon Raphael and Mina Meyer, who have been together 42 years,
Kenslea said.
Loots, who is originally from South Africa, and Leclair, a native of
Canada, met at a Los Angeles nightclub and originally had planned
for a relatively low-key wedding until the opportunity to exchange
vows in the Rose Parade surfaced.
[to top of second column] |
"For me, I was moved by the stand that the AIDS Healthcare
Foundation was taking," Leclair told Reuters on Monday.
Loots said he had been traveling when he got a message from his
partner asking if he would want to get married on a Rose Parade
float.
"I said, 'You're crazy! Of course, let's celebrate our love in front
of the world,'" he recounted, adding that the couple were also
motivated by the chance to offer hope to same-sex couples who in
most states are still denied marriage rights.
"Being on top of this cake floating down the road is truly for the
men and women in the world that don't have these opportunities," he
said.
Wednesday's event comes at a time of increasing momentum for the
cause of gay marriage in the courts, at the ballot box and in
statehouses across the United States.
As of this month, same-sex matrimony has been legally recognized in
18 states and the District of Columbia, with the tally more than
doubling during the past year, due in most cases to litigation over
the issue.
The trend has gained steam since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in
June 2013 that married same-sex couples are eligible for federal
benefits, striking down a key part of the 1996 federal Defense of
Marriage Act.
In a separate decision the same day, the high court let stand a
lower-court ruling that overturned California's voter approved ban
on gay marriage as unconstitutional.
(Reporting by Steve Gorman; additional reporting by Dana Feldman;
editing by Barbara Goldberg)
[© 2014 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2014 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
