Weddingbee Blog

Our wedding venue is across the street from San Francisco City Hall, one of my favorite buildings in town. I ride by it almost every day, and I always pause to take it in. Here’s what it looks like at night from our venue’s street level:

Source

Sure, it’s a government building filled with DMV-reminiscent lines and red tape, just like any other city hall. But this red-tape machine was also the site of some infamous events. In 1978, Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk were shot and killed here by another supervisor, Dan White. (Milk, the Oscar-winning movie about Milk’s political career, activism, and assassination, is a great watch). Riots later broke out over White’s lenient sentencing, and many people and police were injured outside as a result. The building got tore up, too.

With the good comes the bad, though. For every terrible thing that happens here, great things happen, too.

At various points in 2004 and 2008, everyone was allowed to say their I dos, decades after Milk fought so hard for equal rights. But after Prop. 8 passed in 2008, “everyone” wasn’t everyone anymore. This ad below from the Courage Campaign came out shortly afterward. It’s pretty self-explanatory, and it still gets me every time. Some of this is in San Francisco:

“Free to be me!” should be written on all of our driver’s licenses and our Board of Supervisors could be a United Colors of Benetton ad. Is this wonderful? Definitely. Can our SF-ness go over the top? Absolutely, and some of the parodies come dangerously close to real life. But with the good comes the bad, like I said. SF isn’t perfect, and neither are we, neither is our wedding, and neither is our relationship or yours.

Not that long ago, the interracial Tacos would have been denied a marriage license, and it’s a sad reality that some committed couples are still on the shit end of that stick. As excited as we are to get our license in this very building, I think often about many people who can’t. But if there’s anywhere in the world more perfect for great things and great starts, it’s here.