Jakki and Sheila are two women, head over heels in love. They have been formally committed to each other for over 23 years. Their relationship was legally recognised in their civil partnership nine years ago. Yesterday, on the anniversary of this date, something really wonderful took place at Burgh Island in Devon. Jakki and Sheila became officially married, and were able celebrate this momentous occasion with the people that they love and care for all around them. Having led a petition to parliament, which gained over 42,000 signatures and changed the law regarding the conversion of civil partnerships, Jakki and Sheila are directly responsible for enabling this to take place; for gay couples to be treated as equals, to be able to celebrate their love and commitment in the same way as any other adult, to say the marriage vows surrounded by their loved ones and to have a marriage certificate to declare this.
The celebrations were incredibly emotional, so huge and wonderful and colourful and intense. I will save more details for a later blog post with many more photographs. For now, this one image above says it all for me. Moments after signing the official marriage certificate, something that both women have waited many, many years to be able to do, Jakki and Sheila held hands and looked at each other. Wife and wife.
