August 13, 2010
Inspired by her disappointment last year in the New York Senate’s vote against a bill that would allow gay marriage, Utne Reader cover artist Zina Saunders “decided to interview and paint long-standing gay couples, both men and women, and ask them about their stories and their relationships and what marriage means to them.”
Angie (with her partner Bridget, above right) says “Being out has been so much easier for me since we’ve had [our son] Harper, because I feel like we had to make so many choices and decisions through the process of deciding to have a child: every procedure, every time we had to sign a piece of paper, we had to re-choose in that moment, do we really want to have a child? It was a recommitment for me. It’s a recommitment to the relationship. Having to do that so many times, if somebody wants to question our love for each other, then it’s … poor you, you should be ashamed. We didn’t meet in a bar and the next morning wake up and I was pregnant, you know what I mean? It was a real conscious choice and we clearly have thought about this and our relationship very hard and had to do a lot of work in order to get to this point.”
Saunders’ ongoing series of portraits are powerful tributes to true love and commitment.
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