SHARE YOUR STORY TO CHANGE HEARTS & MINDS AROUND THE WORLD  Waited years/decades to marry? Raising a family without access to the benefits and protections marriage offers? Straight but no longer narrow? MEUSA has launched its latest marriage equality story-sharing initiative in conjunction with the story-telling website Cowbird. Designed to collect and share multimedia-rich personal stories about relationships, family, marriage, advocacy, and equality in an online gallery, contributors will have an opportunity to share their personal marriage equality-related stories. “Sharing stories is one of the most powerful ways to sway more people into supporting marriage equality,” says MEUSA Executive Director Brian Silva. “We encourage potential participants to relay their dreams, ideals, and experiences with families, friends, neighbors, colleagues, and communities.” 

One of the first stories to post was that of Ted Hayes and Jack Hayes. After 25 years together, Jack died shortly before marriage equality became a reality in New York. The post has been picked up by Upworthy and has been viewed over 32,000 times as well as receiving many “shares” and “likes” on multiple sites. The following guidelines outline the types of stories MEUSA hopes to gather:

• Personal journeys of same-sex couples and their relationships, children, and hopes and dreams for marriage
• Stories of our families, friends, neighbors, and communities as they’ve come to embrace and work towards marriage equality
• Stories of people who once opposed marriage equality but subsequently moved to a position of support
• Experiences as volunteers and advocates working towards marriage equality

It's easy to be part of Getting to ‘I Do’ and share your own story. Click on the image below or visit cowbird.com/join to create your free Cowbird account. Please write "Marriage Equality USA" in the You section when you sign up.

After you’ve created your account and logged in, please add your personal marriage equality story:

• Click the Tell a story link at the top right of the Cowbird home page
• Upload a photo, add audio and/or text
• Click the Saga icon button in the right column, and choose Marriage Equality from the list of Cowbird sagas that appear

To see what others have written or for ideas of what you can write, check out our current stories.