Celebrate Marriage Equality Get Together, Marcia Schwemer and Jeri Deitrick, 2013/06/13

[caption: @ The Mazer, A Celebration for Same Sex Marriage, Jeri & Marcia, 6.30.2013]

Schwimmer: Hi I’m Marcia Schwimmer.

Deitrick: I’m Jeri Deitrick.

Schwimmer: And we were actually married in that first window of opportunity. I just want to share how Jeri proposed to me because for us, it was partly a political decision. And Jeri's proposal was? What did you say?

[laughter]

Deitrick: You can say it.

Schwimmer: She said she thought we should get married as a political statement. And since I had been married as a young woman, to a man, I had never intended to get married again and I said, “I don’t know.” But we had been together 17 years, so she knew me well enough, she left me alone and about four hours later I came back and I said, “Yes let’s do it, but only if we do it as a fundraiser for the Lesbian Archives.” Which we did, we had a great time. We had 100 people on the beach and we did a witchy Hawaiian wedding. And it was great and I’m really happy about the court decision because I think it gives, especially the part of overturning DOMA, or the part of DOMA that they overturned because we got so many rights. Before that, we had zero federal rights. And now we have something like, someone said, 1100 rights that we did not have a day before that. So. Right on.

[caption: MazerLesbianArchives.org, 33 Years of Preserving Our History, Support the Archives with a Donation Today!]

[END OF VIDEO]


Same sex couples married under California law, speaks out after US Supreme Court rules against California Prop. 8 and federal law, Defense of Marriage Act.

Jeri & Marcia legalized their union after 17 years and are one of 18,000 couples who married prior to the passage of Prop.8 , that restricts marriage as between a man and a woman. The couple share their wedding story and what it means to have this historic ruling validate LGBT civil rights.

Filmed at June L Mazer Lesbian Archives of West Hollywood, CA event, Celebrate Marriage Equality Get Together held June 20, 2013.

Click here to open a PDF transcript.

Interviewee: Jeri Deitrick
Interviewee: Marcia Schwimmer
Interviewer: None
Transcriber: Annie C.
Transcriber: Mikhail Z.
Formatter: Serena R.
Recording Date: June 20, 2013
Release Date: July 19, 2013
Location: West Hollywood, California
Interview Length: 00:01:31