We would like to share our experience celebrating our love in this community. On Aug. 5, 2012, we went to the Whatcom Courthouse and received a marriage license. On Sept. 2 we were married. The only characteristics that qualified us for the privileges that come with legal marriage were $60 and gender. No one asked us if we would be good parents, or even if we loved each other. It was assumed that, because we are a man and a woman, marriage was our right. But we are aware that as an interracial couple, marriage would not always have been considered our right. Before the 1967 US Supreme Court case Loving vs. Virginia, our marriage would have been challenged by anti-miscegenation laws in many states. Many of the arguments that are employed by opponents of marriage equality now were used against marriage equality then. The Virginia judge who had convicted the Lovings for being married claimed God saw "no cause for such marriages." Courageous citizens before us made it possible for us to marry. We owe to other committed couples a vote for the right to marry. The ability to marry whomever we choose is an inalienable individual right and a matter of religious freedom. These are the rights affirmed when you vote to approve Referendum 74. As a loving, married, committed couple, we urge you to support the rights of all couples, and approve Referendum 74.

Anjali Englund and Peter Blackburn

Bellingham