Historic Couple at Forefront of Gay Marriage Ruling Set Date

April DeBoer, left, and Jayne Rowse address reporters after the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 26 ruling declaring marriage a right of all Americans. (Photo via Flickr)

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The Michigan couple at the forefront of last month’s watershed U.S. Supreme Court ruling legalizing same-sex marriage are finalizing invitations to their Aug. 22 ceremony in Southfield.

Hazel Park nurses Jayne Rowse and April DeBoer will be married by Judge Bernard Friedman, who overturned Michigan’s gay marriage ban in 2014, paving the way for the Supreme Court’s 5-4 ruling declaring marriage a right of all Americans.

Rowse and DeBoer asked Friedman to officiate at their wedding on June 26, the day the Supreme Court’s historic ruling ending decades-long battles for marriage equality fought in courts, state legislatures and at the ballot box.

“Yes, anytime,” he reportedly said, according to a report in the Detroit Free Press.

“I know you didn’t think this was where it was going to go,” Rowse said to Friedman last month, “but thank you for getting the ball rolling.”

The historic couple, who originally sued for the right to jointly adopt each other’s children, told the Free Press they’ve been overwhelmed by offers from businesses and others who want to help with the wedding.

“We’re so grateful for what everyone is doing,” DeBoer said. “We’re honored to be this face that brought this to Michigan and we’re honored that people are so willing to help us.”

Related:

• Supreme Court Rules, 5-4, In Favor of Gay Marriage

Almost a month after the ruling, the reality of their place in history is just beginning to sink in.

“We’re doing all this planning and everything, but I don’t know that it’s actually sunk in that we can do this, that it will be for real this time,” DeBoer told the Free Press. “The fact it’s not a commitment ceremony but a legal ceremony, it’s still kind of sinking in.”

Together, the couple have four children, all of whom will take part in next month’s wedding, which will be a large affair that breathes life into Justice Anthony Kennedy’s stirring words in the majority opinion:

“No union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice and family. In forming a marital union, two people become something greater than they once were.”

“It means that this fight that Jayne and I took on, we were right and we won,” DeBoer told the Free Press. “And it means that our kids are safe and protected and really that our love is true and now it’s now recognized.”

Once they’re legally wed, the couple will begin the process of adopting each other’s children. They had hoped to adopt them the same day they exchanged vows, but that wasn’t possible, DeBoer told WJBK-TV.

“The marriage doesn’t change our relationship,” she said. “But it changes the protection of our family and the protection of us. And it validates our love – which is a bonus.”