Straight Ohio Couple Who Waited For Nationwide Marriage Equality Gets Engaged After 13 Years

In an Op-Ed in the Dayton Daily News, an employee of the paper named Carrie Landers shared the wonderful news of her engagement, explaining why she and her fiancée Phillip Lee decided to wait nearly 13 years to tie the knot and how Friday’s Supreme Court ruling changed their minds about getting married.

Over the course of a few years, that friendship turned into love. As our relationship progressed, we knew we wanted to spend the rest of our lives together, but we both felt it was profoundly unfair to ask our LGBT friends to celebrate a choice they were legally prevented from making. …Time to put our money where our mouth is, so to speak. No excuses now! Phil and I decided to make it Facebook-official and changed our relationship status to “Engaged.” I’ve never had so many Facebook notifications in my life. So many of our friends and family were not only happy that after 13 years together we’re making it official, but more importantly that marriage equality had finally happened. …today has made me realize how incredibly meaningful it really is. We often take for granted those rights and privileges guaranteed to us as Americans – until today millions of Americans were treated as second-class citizens, unable to enjoy what the rest of us had taken for granted. I am proud to finally be standing on equal ground with my LGBT brothers and sisters.

image via Carrie Landers