Couples

For people in same-sex relationships, aging carries an added burden of anxiety: the fear that in a health crisis their partner might be excluded from making medical decisions, even visiting their bedside.

Consider Tim Hare, 62, a retired architect in Easton, Pa., with a history of heart problems. He and his partner of 34 years, Earl Ball, were legally married in Canada in 2003. But whether hospitals and health care authorities in this country would recognize them as family members is an open question, even with President Obama’s order last week extending hospital visiting rights and decision-making authority to same-sex partners.

The Couples for Equality™ (“C4E”) team had a wonderful and fun time at Miami Beach Pride, where over 50,000 people attended the Parade on famous and beautiful Ocean Drive and the following Festival on the adjacent beach.  Couples for Equality™ debuted at Miami Beach Pride’s Legacy Couples reception at the Park Central Hotel on Ocean Drive honoring long-term, committed relationships by hosting a photo-shoot with Miami photographer Dale Stine.  Over 25 Legacy Couples who have been together from 10 to over 45 years, participated in the photo shoot (some of whom you see within this post). These photographs are all showcased on Couples for Equality™ under Galleries/Miami Beach Pride 2011.  The Legacy Couples event was the highlight of C4E’s day, and we were so fortunate to work with so many volunteers and organizers of Miami Beach Pride.

By Ari Ezra Waldman via towleroad.com

One subset of the gay community -- legally married bi-national same-sex couples -- must be feeling particularly whiplashed of late. One day, they are set to be ripped apart or forced into exile in Canada. Then, they get a reprieve from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) when representatives from the Washington, D.C. and Baltimore districts announce that they will hold in abeyance all deportation proceedings involving gay foreign nationals legally married to gay American citizens.

DUTCH pair Helene Faasen and Anne-Marie Thus walked down the aisle into the history books 10 years ago as the world's first legally wed lesbian couple, a distinction they now employ in activism. "We married for love, not politics. But of course we were aware it was an historic moment," 41-year-old Anne-Marie, a notary assistant and gay rights campaigner, said ahead of their 10th anniversary on Friday.

By tying the knot in front of the world's press, "we wanted to make other people think about how horrible it is to be denied something that is a natural right for others," added her wife, 44-year-old notary Helene Faasen.

"A heterosexual person never needs to think about whether he is allowed to marry or not, he simply needs to be lucky enough to find the love of his life."