[{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BlogPosting","@id":"https:\/\/equallywed.com\/the-great-gaycation-winning-essay-on-marriage-equality\/#BlogPosting","mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/equallywed.com\/the-great-gaycation-winning-essay-on-marriage-equality\/","headline":"The Great Gaycation Winning Essay on Marriage Equality","name":"The Great Gaycation Winning Essay on Marriage Equality","description":"The winner of the Great Gaycation Giveaway has been selected. Congratulations, Lindsey Salay of Miami, Florida! Your winning essay on why marriage equality is important...","datePublished":"2013-08-09","dateModified":"2021-06-30","author":{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/equallywed.com\/author\/admin\/#Person","name":"Equally Wed","url":"https:\/\/equallywed.com\/author\/admin\/","identifier":787,"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ca62cf123aaaf135c80b055249bacbda79de9226e11cdfcde6529bedf89683de?s=96&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ca62cf123aaaf135c80b055249bacbda79de9226e11cdfcde6529bedf89683de?s=96&r=g","height":96,"width":96}},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Equally Wed","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"http:\/\/equallywed.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/equally-wed-lgbtq-weddings-logo.jpg","url":"http:\/\/equallywed.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/equally-wed-lgbtq-weddings-logo.jpg","width":218,"height":60}},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/equallywed.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/oasis-sens-gay-friendly-mexico-resort-pool-vacation-romantic-honeymoon.jpg","url":"https:\/\/equallywed.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/oasis-sens-gay-friendly-mexico-resort-pool-vacation-romantic-honeymoon.jpg","height":426,"width":640},"url":"https:\/\/equallywed.com\/the-great-gaycation-winning-essay-on-marriage-equality\/","about":["Marriage Equality News"],"wordCount":391,"articleBody":"The winner of the Great Gaycation Giveaway has been selected. Congratulations, Lindsey Salay of Miami, Florida! Your winning essay on why marriage equality is important to you deeply impressed the judges, and you and a guest have won an all-expenses paid dream trip to&nbsp;the gay-friendly resort Oasis SENS in Cancun, Mexico.&nbsp;Thanks to all of our sponsors: Oasis SENS, Gayborhood App,&nbsp;Aqua Foundation for Women, Brushstrokes, Del Shores, For The Kid in All of Us, Georgia Equality, HRC Atlanta, IGLTA, North Georgia Rainbow Coalition and Rainbow Days at Six Flags Over Georgia.Read Lindsey&#8217;s winning essay below the next photo.Lindsey andAmandaSitting in a tree,K-I-S-S-I-N-G!First comes love,Then comes \u2026a) \u201cgay\u201d marriage b) civil unions c) domesticpartnerships d) none of the aboveBy simply inputting two female names, this popular childhood songtransforms into a complex social issue. Although the love remains thesame, the subsequent opportunities are not equal. Marriage equality isimportant to me because marriage is the ultimate symbol of love. Torestrict gay marriage, is to say that my love is less.For that LGBTQ child on the playground hearing the above song, I wantthem to know their love is equal. I never want another LGBTQ child togive up their dream to marry like I began to do as a confusedteenager. Growing up as an LGBTQ child is confusing enough withoutsociety telling us our love is not worthy of marriage.On June 26th, the Supreme Court favorably ruled on both Proposition 8and DOMA cases. That same day my parents celebrated a quarter centuryof love and devotion, twenty-five years of marriage. This parallelhelped me realize how much I want to eventually marry the woman Ilove. When I come out as a lesbian, I am often asked if I \u201cstill\u201dwant to get married. As if everything I have wanted has suddenlychanged now they know I am a lesbian; the only change is that I want awife not a husband.While volunteering at the Trevor Project, I took an implicitassociation test that involved sorting pictures into homosexual andheterosexual categories. I consistently placed a picture of a weddinginto the \u201cwrong\u201d category, homosexual. No matter how hard I tried,I could not sort marriage to be exclusively heterosexual. In my heart,I know that marriage is about true love not gender.&nbsp;All photos courtesy of Oasis SENS"},{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"The Great Gaycation Winning Essay on Marriage Equality","item":"https:\/\/equallywed.com\/the-great-gaycation-winning-essay-on-marriage-equality\/#breadcrumbitem"}]}]