The Campaign for Southern Equality, the group behind the recent “We Do” campaign marriage demonstration in Decatur, Ga., has released a video highlighting the current campaign as it prepares to travel to Washington, D.C.
Since Jan. 2, the group has traveled to Hattiesburg, Miss.; Mobile, Ala.; Decatur, Ga.; Morristown, Tenn.; Greenville, S.C.; and Wilson / Winston Salem, N.C.
The campaign winds up in Arlington, Va., where gay couples will also be denied marriage licenses Jan. 17. Then the group of activists will march approximately four miles to Washington, D.C., to participate in the legal marriage of a couple in front of the Jefferson Memorial.
Kecia Cunningham, who made history in 1999 when she became the first openly gay African American elected to public office in Georgia and the Southeast, was named mayor pro tem of Decatur this week.
Cunningham has served on the Decatur City Commission since her historic victory more than a decade ago. Decatur commissioners elect the city’s mayor and mayor pro tem out of their ranks.
Cunningham was voted unanimously to the post Jan. 7 during the first commission meeting of the new year. The city's new mayor is Jim Baskett.
Five gay couples lined up and asked for marriage licenses in Decatur, Ga., Jan. 7, and all were denied, as expected, because Georgia prohibits same-sex marriages.
The couples were participating in the "We Do" action, one of many organized by the Campaign for Southern Equality, which seeks to bring Southern states into the national conversation about marriage equality.