A mass wedding was held at Mt. Rushmore over the Labor Day weekend. Seven same-sex couples gathered under the monument designed as a shrine to democracy for an afternoon ceremony.
People gathered in Mt. Rushmore’s amphitheater on Sunday afternoon.
“Dear family and friends and members of our community. Supporters, welcome to marriage and renewed ceremony of our friends that are gathered here today.”
After several speeches and performances, seven couples joined hands in front of the stage and said their vows.
“So having witnessed your marriage vows with all who are assembled here today, and by the authority vested in me, by the state of South Dakota, it is with great joy and humbled admiration that I now pronounce you united, legally married and spouses for life. Would you please kiss your spouse.”
Among the couples were Nancy and Jennie Rosenbrahn.
“We got invited to the tree house is what today means. We were never allowed in that tree house of marriage, okay. So today the ladder got dropped and we got to walk into the tree house and say we belong here too. But ours still has a caveat. Ours still says we can still lose our jobs or housing. So we don’t have that same freedom that the others in the tree house automatically have, okay. So that’s what we have to work towards,” Nancy Rosenbrahn says.
Nancy and Jennie Rosenbrahn were married in Minnesota prior to the Supreme Court decision that legalized same-sex marriage. The couple says they shouldn’t have had to leave South Dakota to get legally married.
“Those words today were powerful. The vows today meant more because we’re in our home state, we’re in our home monument and we got to say the words that those people in the tree house have been saying all along. So yeah, one special day,” says Nancy Rosenbrahn.
The Black Hills Center for Equality sponsored the mass ceremony and will continue to discuss future issues important to the LGBT community.