![\"IMG_1075\"](\"http:\/\/challengedetroit.org\/blog\/jonathanganci\/files\/2015\/07\/IMG_1075-200x300.jpg\")
<\/p>\nIn less than four months I\u2019ll be married. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s fully hit me yet, and it probably won\u2019t until sometime in September.<\/p>\n
As a child of divorce I often thought I would never get married. What was the point? Why spend all that money? Do you really need a piece of paper to validate a relationship? Is all of this just societal pressure? What if we have a kid and his life is spent\u00a0bouncing around two different houses if we get divorced?<\/p>\n
I am not necessarily sure about the answers to these questions, but I do know that my outlook on marriage has changed. I am excited about it now. I am excited to have a teammate for the rest of my life. I am excited to be able to lean on someone when things are tough, to share in the joys of life, and everything in between. I am excited to compromise, to get frustrated and work through it, and to become a better person because of a relationship.<\/p>\n
To be fair, this all can be done without a legal marriage. We could just live together for the rest of our days and many of these things would happen. However, the act of being married is a special validation of a relationship in our society. It is a milestone achievement in people\u2019s life.<\/p>\n
I met my fianc\u00e9 over 11 years ago, in a chemistry class at our high school. Marriage is not only the next step in our relationship, but it also provides a venue to for us to make the ultimate life long commitment to each other. I am excited for it.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
As a white, heterosexual male, I haven\u2019t had to worry about society\u2019s view of my relationship, or what rights my partner and I would have when we wanted to get married. All I had to worry about was finding the right person for me, falling in love, and some how convincing her that spending the rest her life with me would be a good idea. It\u2019s been pretty easy in a sense, and I am excited that the same road for my gay friends just got easier too.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
On June 26th<\/sup>, the Supreme Court decision in Obergefell v. Hodges <\/em>legalized gay marriage in the United States. I\u2019ll forever remember where I was when I heard the news. I\u2019ll remember who I texted and I\u2019ll remember the joy I felt for my friends who could now be married and have that marriage recognized in every state.<\/p>\n I remember telling my friend a few years ago that gay marriage would be legal by the time I was 50. He laughed it off and argued that it wouldn\u2019t be. Little did I know that it would only take a fraction of that time.<\/p>\n I am proud of a growing public opinion that supports gay rights, of the countless amount of same-sex couples that fought for this day, and of the fact that our beautiful system of checks and balances worked out so well. As July 4th<\/sup> approaches, I\u2019ll be especially proud to be an American.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In less than four months I\u2019ll be married. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s fully hit me yet, and it probably won\u2019t until sometime in September. As a child of divorce I often thought I would never get married. What was the point? Why spend all that money? Do you really need a piece of paper to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":193,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/193"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13063\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}