Bliss: A Marriage Proposal

For Charles Stephen Hughes

This book is written as a marriage proposal to Charles Stephen Hughes, my loving companion for going on fourteen years now. I want him to be my husband, and I want to be his husband. I’m inviting the public to read this proposal because I want my declaration of love for this man to be entered into the realm of public knowledge, to be on the record, to be a publication. You see, this isn’t the first time I’ve asked him this question. His answer has always been that he’ll answer the question when the outcome can be legally recognized as a marriage. And not a marriage “equivalent”; he wants the full force of history behind the word for our relationship. He wants a marriage, and so do I. Hence, this book. My hope is that by making a public declaration of what I believe a marriage would mean to us as a couple I will accomplish two ends. First and foremost, of course, I hope and trust that Charles Stephen will find me and my vision for our life together worthy of a marriage commitment. At the same time, I hope that others who read these words will understand that commitment to be worthy of the word marriage. These are words I’ve written to Charles Stephen over the nearly fourteen years that we’ve known each other. I offer them to him, to you and to the world as evidence that we, along with all same-sex couples who wish to commit their lives to each other, are meant and deserve to be together in a state of lawfully wedded bliss.