Kentuckians get married on White House lawn after Biden signs Respect for Marriage Act

Married since 2004, the couple tied the knot in the only place you could back then: Ontario Canada, overlooking Niagara falls.

When they got home, they wanted the commonwealth to recognize their marriage and soon were brought on to Obergefell v. Hodges, the case deciding marriage equality on the country’s highest court.

Then in June, when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote the court should revisit Obergefell, and the couple worried their work would be undone.

At the time, Bourke told WHAS11 News, “I can’t believe I’m having to say these words again because it is just so frustrating that we have to keep arguing and convincing people that we have a right to be married.”

Now, their right to marry is written into federal law for the first time.

De Leon said, “Senate and our House of Representatives, they took action, bipartisan action.”

The two celebrated with the Human Rights Campaign Tuesday night but took time to talk with us. They described a day that was unprecedented but somehow the same as every other day in their 40 years together.

Bourke said their relationship still surprised people (even at a party celebrating LGBTQ+ rights), “We’re sitting there, I had my arm around Michael, [people] were saying how can you be together for 40 years and still do that?”

The Fairness campaigns Chris Hartman put the law into context.

He called this, “One of the first and only pro-LGBTQ bills to make it through congress and make it to the president’s desk to be signed and now make it into law.”

Hartman not only celebrated the right to marry but married his now-husband john on the White House lawn. He said, “I got married on the White House lawn, because why not?!”

Greg Bourke and Michael De Leon were happy to hear the news. De Leon added that it was nice to get closer to the two on their trip to DC. Bourke said, “Yeah, they will never forget that as long as they live.”