For Immediate Release – Contact Roy Speckhardt at (202) 238-9088
rspeckhardt@americanhumanist.org – www.americanhumanist.org
(Washington, DC, July 16, 2008) On Saturday, July 19th, a pair of same-sex weddings will be performed before history’s largest number of witnesses to such unions. The ceremonies will take place in this year’s Annual LGBT Pride Parade in San Diego, California. Moreover, they will be nontheistic humanist weddings rather than traditional religious ones.
The ceremonies will be held atop the parade float of the Humanist Association of San Diego, enabling the anticipated 150,000 Pride attendees to witness this celebration of GLBT marriage rights. Two marriages will be performed, gay and lesbian, by Humanist Celebrant Jason Frye, president of the Humanist Association of San Diego, a chapter of the American Humanist Association. The ceremonies will legally wed Danny Givens to Pilo Rocha and Kenya Graham to Celese Roberts.
“A crowd of 150,000 can be overwhelming, but I hope the joy these couples feel will be more overwhelming still,” said Frye.
Since the California Supreme Court ruled that the state constitution prohibited laws that discriminate based on sexual orientation, the primary focus has been on same-sex marriages. “There are 1,138 legal benefits to marriage that were denied to gay couples,” said Frye. “but now we are witnessing a new day in which lesbians and gays will finally be treated as full, American citizens.”
The American Humanist Association’s Chapter Assembly was delighted to provide the funding to make the event possible. Speaking on their behalf, American Humanist Association Executive Director Roy Speckhardt said today, “Because of humanism’s long tradition of supporting equal rights for all–not letting ancient religious ideas cloud moral sensibilities–it’s only appropriate that humanists have taken the initiative in this action.”
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For more information on the unique characteristics of humanist weddings, visit
http://www.humanist-society.org/celebrants/wedding.html and http://www.nonreligiouswedding.com/.
The American Humanist Association (www.americanhumanist.org) advocates for the rights and viewpoints of humanists. Founded in 1941 and headquartered in Washington, D.C., its work is extended through more than 100 local chapters and affiliates across America.
Humanism is a progressive philosophy of life that, without theism, affirms our responsibility to lead ethical lives of value to self and humanity.