Thursday night at about 10 o'clock, the mayor of Bloomington, Ind., married more than a dozen same-sex couples on the opening night of the town's 10th annual Pride LGBT Film Festival. Inside the Buskirk-Chumley Theater, couples took the stage en masse and exchanged vows with Mayor Mark Kruzan presiding.
But the nature of the ceremonies wasn't strictly celebratory; Mayor Kruzan, joined by several city and county council members, hosted the mass wedding as a protest against Indiana's proposed constitutional amendment that would ban same-sex marriage.
House Joint Resolution 6 would amend Indiana's constitution to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman, and would ban the creation of similar legal structures to provide relationship recognition rights to same-sex couples in the state. The state Senate passed the legislation in 2011 on a vote of 40-10, reports Indiana Equality. Due to the state's lawmaking rules, to become law, the legislation must pass the House and Senate again in 2013 or 2014. If the legislation passes this year or next, it will appear on the ballot for Indiana voters in 2014.
But for the dozen couples who gathered to celebrate their love and commitment last night, the evening's mood was celebratory and perhaps even revolutionary. Take a look at the photos, shot by Ann Schertz, on the following pages.
