I met Vic in the spring of 1997, and in August I asked Vic out. He said yes!  From our first date on August 9 until now, we’ve been together, a couple.

Wanting to marry, we flew in October 2013 from Plano, where we live, to San Antonio, the city where we met, to apply for a marriage license. When we were turned down, we and another couple filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Texas’ ban on same-sex marriages. We spent almost 2 years in litigation – first at the federal district court level in San Antonio and then before the 5^th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans.

While the 5^th Circuit considered our case, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear a marriage equality case.  The hearing in that case, which Vic and I attended, was held on April 28 of this year, and on June 26 the Supreme Court ruled in favor of marriage equality.

Through our entire two years of litigation, Equality Texas stood by our side, lending support.  When the Texas legislature threatened additional legislation this year to try to delay or affect the implementation of an expected favorable Supreme Court marriage equality decision, Equality Texas successfully fought those efforts – with the support of a broad coalition Equality Texas put together, including many straight allies!

Equality Texas is now working to pass needed legislation to protect LGBT Texans from, among other things, being fired at their place of employment when they return to work after getting married the day before – all of which is unbelievably still perfectly legal in the State of Texas in 2015.

When we needed support – we turned to Equality Texas.  For all of these reasons – for all that Equality Texas has done and still needs to do – Vic and I support Equality Texas.  And it’s why we urge you to do the same.

Thank you for supporting equality. Thank you for supporting Equality Texas.

Mark Phariss & Vic Holmes
Plano, Texas