While the LGBT community and supporters were celebrating in the streets and raving in the social media scene because of the Supreme Court's historical decision to legalize same-sex marriage across all 50 states in the United States last Friday, an elderly couple in Dallas was on their way to the Dallas County to tie the knot.
Jack Evans, 85, had a cane with a rainbow pride flag tucked in his lapel, while George Harris, 82, held three red roses in his hands-both in matching red ties, walking side-by-side from the county clerk desk into a courtroom. After 54 years of waiting, they finally got married.
The couple met more than five decades ago in a party. However, they kept their relationship secret for 20 years, according to Fox News. Before Friday happened, Texas was among the 14 states that banned same-sex marriage.
"A lot of our friends went out of state or Canada to get married, but we being Texans we wanted to hold out for Texas. I said, well, I hope we live long enough," Harris said.
"Ten years ago, this was not even imaginable," Evans quipped. "Had little hope it would ever come to Texas, still shocked that Texas is allowing it today."
NBC reported that Evans and Harris were the first of 170 same-sex couples to get married and receive their marriage licence on Friday in Dallas County. The county's 13 district judges, Judge Dennise Garcia who facilitated the couple's marriage, and five family court judges waived the standard 72-hour waiting period in order to allow the same-sex unions to be done by Friday.
And how did the newlyweds feel after the ceremony? "Worn out," Evans told People. "It is a lot of work to have a wedding in one day. We're having a blast."
"You would have been blown away by the crowd there, there must have been 450 people there, people waiting to get married, reporters. It was amazing. Just amazing."
