"A True Love Story..."

Jeremiah Pyant & Jeff Robertson, Texas

This story is from early 2014 when the ACLU sponsored a Marriage Equality contest in the run up to the Supreme Court's historic marriage equality ruling in June 2015

JP: I'm a flight attendant. I was working a flight from Atlanta from Milwaukee and he was on the plane, and we started conversing. I guess he kind of noticed me. We exchanged numbers and through phone calls and Facebook and texting, we got to know each other more. I had another layover in Milwaukee and that's when we finally started dating. And the rest is history.

What's a hurdle you've faced in your relationship?

JP: With us living in Texas, we had a domestic partnership in Wisconsin. It doesn't carry over state boundaries. With my job, I do have same-sex partner benefits, which is a very good thing, but my domestic partnership doesn't mean anything because I live in Texas. If we had to move to another state, such as California where they allow, I would have to fill out more information. That was kind of a hurdle, having to fill out more paperwork to have benefits. But now we are getting married, we do have partner benefits, regardless of whatever state we're in.

Why did you enter the "My Big Gay (Il)legal Wedding" contest?

JR: We entered the contest originally because we liked the idea of, one, $5,000. Secondly, it allows you to have a creative outlet to shine the light on the issue. You get a lot of the news articles and things coming out about different court cases, but this was different. It hits those hearts and those minds, and it puts a face onto it. And it's really creative. It spoke to us, especially, because Jeremiah's gone all the time. He lands in a different state every other day. If we were legally married, we'd be divorced about six or seven times throughout the day. Depending on where is laying over for the night, we're divorced for the whole night…This patchwork of where it's legal and where it's not, it's us all day. We live that patchwork all day long.

How will you spend the $5,000?

JP: We have planned to do a hot air balloon celebration. We're going to go to El Paso, Texas, and take a hot air balloon across the border to New Mexico and have a wonderful celebration at 15,000 feet.

JR: It's that high up!? I didn't know we were going that high! I didn't know we were going that high!

JP: How high did you think we were going?

JR: I don't know! I thought we'd get a little ladder and climb back down [laughs]! Okay! We'll have champagne while we're up there [laughs].

JP: I'm up for the challenge. I'm with the person I love.

Finish the sentence, "the whole country needs marriage equality because…"

JR: It's more than just a gay issue. It's a human rights, a civil rights issue. We [our country] consider ourselves the leader of the world, so why not be the leader on an issue that is so prevalent in our time right now? I think that our country could set the example and show that, we say we're all for one, one for all, so let's be that. Let's live that truth.