Gay couple won't let Proposition 8 steal their dream
Two men who moved from Ohio to California to marry continue to protest the measure's passage.
Fearing taunts and disapproval, they kept their love hidden for nearly two years. But with the Nov. 4 election looming, Christopher Lewis and Cody Horton resolved to take a leap of faith.
Following in the footsteps of generations of adventurers and romantics, the shy young couple from Ohio announced they were heading west to marry and begin a new life in California. They put on dark suits and exchanged vows on an unseasonably balmy afternoon in late October, before family, friends and the wide Pacific Ocean.
Wanting to give back to the state that recognized his union, Lewis took a job as a physician's assistant at a community health center in Tehachapi, caring for migrant farm workers. But by the time they had packed up their apartment in Ohio and returned to California, voters had approved a change to the state Constitution that put their marriage in doubt.
Before they moved here, the self-effacing couple had never even seen a demonstration, much less protested themselves. But two days after the election, they drove two hours into Los Angeles and nervously joined the throngs marching in protest of Proposition 8. The next night, they were back on the streets in Long Beach. The night after that, in Silver Lake, then Westwood and downtown Los Angeles.
"It just hurt so bad; it's all we could think of doing," Lewis said. "It's all we have left."
They are pessimistic that the California Supreme Court will overturn the ban, despite the high-profile appeals by top politicians, including state Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown.
"I did send a wedding picture to the chief justice and wrote a note on the back of it asking him to share it," Lewis said. "Hopefully, if they see enough faces, they will realize that their decisions make a huge difference."
Lewis, 24, and Horton, 20, found each other online during one lonely Christmas vacation in 2006. Horton was in his last year of high school in Middletown, Ohio. Lewis was studying to become a physician's assistant at Kettering College of Medical Arts, a Seventh-day Adventist school in nearby Dayton.
"It was awful," Lewis said. "We had to take religion classes, and they teach being gay is wrong."
He started searching MySpace pages for anyone listing themselves as gay in the Dayton area. A song posted on Horton's page (Say Anything's "Slowly, Through a Vector") caught Lewis' attention, and he left Horton a message. They chatted online, then agreed to meet at a club. Later, they went to the home of Horton's grandmother, who was out of town. They put on a movie, and Horton put his head on Lewis' shoulder.
