By Igor Volsky and Victoria Fleischer
If same-sex couples were stuck in an elevator with Justice Scalia, here is what they’d say to him.
Transcript:
ELLEN PONTAC & SHELLY BAILES: We’ve been working for gay rights since 1983 and marriage equality since 2000 and we just couldn’t stay away. Besides, we had nothing else to do today.
DIANA IWANSKI: I would like to travel within the United States of America and be married everywhere.
FRED SMITH: I didn’t choose to be born African American any more than I chose to be born gay.
IGOR VOLSKY: Could you imagine, 20 years ago when you and your husband got together that you would…
MARRIAGE SUPPORTER: Absolutely not!
IGOR VOLSKY: Could you imagine when you got together 39 years ago that you would be standing here today?
DARREN NIMNICHT & TOM CICERO: Absolutely not!
IGOR VOLSKY: Can you imagine, 16 years ago when you guys got together that you’d be here today?
BETH PEPPER & LISA WILLIAMS: Absolutely not!
MARRIAGE SUPPORTER: 10 years ago, if you asked me if I thought I’d be married, I’d say no.
DARREN NIMNICHT & TOM CICERO: As the years have gone by, every once in a while we stop and say, can you believe this? Can you believe this?
IGOR VOLSKY: If you had like 30 seconds in an elevator with Justice Scalia, what would you tell him to convince him of your case here?
DARREN NIMNICHT & TOM CICERO: I don’t know if he’d want to hear this.
MARRIAGE SUPPORTER: I might just look at what’s written above the doorway that they would walk into — it says “equal justice under the law.” It’s in stone right above their building and that means everybody.
DARREN NIMNICHT & TOM CICERO: If my life were a book, one sentence in one chapter of the entire book would read, “and i prefer to sleep with and love men.” And that shouldn’t change the rest of my life.
MARRIAGE SUPPORTER: It doesn’t say for some. It’s for everybody. That includes me!
IGOR VOLSKY: Some of the opponents here today, if you had to like give them a 30-second pitch for your side, what would you say to them, how would you sell them on this?
JOANNE SHAIN & MARY JO KENNEDY: Well, they’re pretty tough nuts to crack.
WALLY SUPHAP: I would just introduce myself to them.
JOANNE SHAIN & MARY JO KENNEDY: We just want the same rights that everybody takes for granted.
WALLY SUPHAP: Just for them to get to know us and get to know that my love for my partner is just as genuine as any love that they have for their partners.
ELLEN PONTAC & SHELLY BAILES: We would do this.