Dallas Gay Couple Marries Over Skype

Gay couple Mark Reed and Dante Walkup married on the Internet after

a 10 year engagement.

The men exchanged vows in Dallas, Texas, where gay marriage is banned,

via a Skype call that connected them to Sheila Alexander-Reid, who

officiated their wedding from the District of Columbia. Gay marriage

became legal in the nation's capital in March.

Before the wedding, the men traveled to D.C. to register their marriage,

but said they wanted to hold their ceremony in Dallas.

“The reason we wanted to do it this way is because we wanted to have

a wedding here in Dallas with our family and friends,” Reed told gay

weekly the Dallas Voice. “It was very important that all our family came.”

The couple held their wedding in a conference room at the W Hotel,

where they exchanged vows in front of a 6-by-8 foot screen illuminated

with the image from the teleconference call.

“When we walked down the aisle, as soon as we reached the front, she [Alexander-Reid] comes on the screen like The Wizard of Oz,”

Reed said. “It was beautiful. It wasn't make believe. It was like she

was really there.” (A short video of the couple's wedding is embedded in

the right panel of this page.)

Such Internet-based ceremonies are called e-marriages, and Reed and

Walkup are currently lobbying lawmakers in states where gay marriage

is legal to codify the practice to ensure such marriages are legal.

Adamfoxie blog Int.