Washington, DC, has opened the door for homosexual couples to get married without being physically present in the district, where gay marriage is legal. This week, two men, Thomas Mark Reed and Dante Karl Walkup, got married while in Dallas, Texas, by using the online video conferencing service Skype to communicate with activist Sheila Alexander-Reid who officiated the ceremony from DC. “When we walked down the aisle, as soon as we reached the front, she comes on the screen like The Wizard of Oz,” Reed told the Dallas Voice. “It was beautiful. It wasn’t make-believe. It was like she was really there.”
Reed and Walkup are the co-owners of a lighting company in Dallas. Same-sex marriage is illegal in Texas, but the pair wanted their families to be present at their wedding, so they came up with the Skype marriage solution.
The first “digital gay wedding” performed across state lines may be challenged in court by opponents of same-sex marriage.
-David Wallechinsky, Noel Brinkerhoff