every corner of our nation, every lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender person can breathe deeply and walk a little taller. today the ground has shifted. and for the first time in history, with a relationship of same-sex couples enjoy the same dignity and respect as anyone else justice and love won today. [ applause and cheers ] >> and make no mistake. make no mistake. much of what we won today started here. this is what you did. today is what you did. you made today possible. you're the reason we're standing here. every sacrifice, and i know because i know many of you, and i know the stories from across the country, the sacrifices made by so many.

the shame and the indignity endured by so many. that is now over and those relationships matter and everything sacrifice you make has now been vindicated and matters. [ applause and cheers ] so now our charge, now our charge is to harness this momentum so that everyone in our community no matter where they live can live fully and freely. our charge is to take this momentum to move it forward to battle racism, to battle economic inequality, to be sure that no one is left behind, no one is left behind! [ applause and cheers ] >> i know you know this. i know you know this but it bears repeating. from attacks on transgender women of color to the shocking number of lgbt homeless youth

to the denial of parental rights and recognition, to conditions in detention centers, jails an prisons, to even the basic right to get and keep a job, the daily reality for still so many in our community is isolation and stigma. but we are going to do something about that. because look what we did. look what we did. [ applause and cheers ] >> now, i know you all understand that there's going to be forward work but guess what. you're joined by tremendous partners. 11 years ago, when we were involved in issuing marriage licenses and when we filed our lawsuit, there were only three companies that signed on to an amicus brief. pg&e, at&t and levi corporation. [ applause and cheers ] >> three companies. who stood up, got tremendous

blowback. the latest amicus brief in the supreme court, hundreds of companies signed on to friend of the court briefs so we have a huge community and over 60% of the public with us. we can finish this. pg&e, this week, pledged another quarter of a million dollars to nclr to help do this work. and, yes, and there are challenges to every other corporation to spread that money throughout the community in california and beyond to assure that we take this victory and we take what we're feeling today and we make sure there is a day where every lgbt person feels this. but today we have the scaffolding to build a new america. for every lgbt person and beyond. this is the once in a generation chance a once in a movement chance to alter the

future of every successive generation. so who is with me? let's do this. let's do this. [ applause and cheers ] >> back in 2004 you look back now 11 years and you think, oh, gosh, this was a foregone conclusion and everybody should have study up for the freedom to marry. but you know that was not the case. it took uncommon leadership. and we had that in our city attorney dennis herrera. it was an honor to work with him side by side. please welcome to your city attorney dennis herrera. [ applause and cheers ] >> happy pride! >> thank you, kate kendall. and mayor lee. who i'm sure arranged for the great weather going to have this weekend, right? >> whoo! >> what a wonderful day. you know, i was -- i had

justice stewart and now judge chabria who are here today in my office remembering where we were 11 years ago. and about the challenges that we knew we were going to face as we began this battle alongside mayor gavin newson. and we have stood on these steps many times over the course of those 11 years. we have had a lot of ups. we have had some downs. but all of us collectively never, ever wavered in doing what was right. and as i think back -- [ applause ] > -- we have uttered the words many times in this building about the ark of history bends toward justice. today it came to fruition. >> whoo! [ applause ] >> and think we need to call special recognition to the plaintiffs and our good friend mary for her tremendous leadership and work at the

united states supreme court. [ applause ] >> but what we saw today was a culmination of something that i have said repeatedly over the course of the last 11 years. the beauty of using the power of the law to make a difference in people's lives each and every day. and that is what we saw over the course of the last 11 years. but it would not have happened without the human faces of all of you. because if you had the opportunity or if you have the opportunity to go and read justice kennedy's opinion this morning, i would encourage you to read the syllabus. the beginning. the introduction. it talks a lot about the history of marriage. the history of discrimination the lgbt community has dealt with too long. you get a sense of the power to change people's minds and today everybody succeeded in really bringing justice to the

thousands and thousands of lgbt families and individuals that have suffered for millenia and today it stops. [ applause and cheers ] >> that is due to the efforts of all of you. think about the progress that we have made. prop 22 passed 60-40 in this state 15 years ago. and now how many people have come to the right conclusion about understanding that everybody is entitled to equal protection under the law irrespective of sexual orientation. and i want to draw something to what kate kendall said about that this is obviously another brick in the foundation of the wall of equality. but it doesn't stop here. if we're going to build a more justice society there's more work left to be done in terms of income inequality and those that are economically less fortunate to deal with issues of racism, to understand that while today's a wonderful day and we should celebrate, we

also have to understand that there are still discrimination that we have to fight and we need equal protection under the law in federal employment legislation, the like for lgbt individuals throughout this country to make sure that the efforts of people like jim and roberta who i see standing in the back what they went through, no one ever has to go through again. and that we have equality in every sphere of our lives in this country once and for all. and i know that with the efforts and stick to itiveness of all of you that you'll stick with what we have accomplished today and continue that battle as we fight into the future. so thanks so much for your support. it's a day to celebrate. have a great weekend. [ applause and cheers ] >> you know, the city attorney brings up an interesting point. what are you doing this

weekend? [ laughter ] >> we're going to be here on sunday, right? >> yeah! >> we're going to -- we'll have a lot to celebrate. you know, there are many tremendous leaders up here with me who made today possible. even before many of us thought this day could be realized a friend to the community and one of the most tremendous leaders we have in the state of california, please welcome senator mark leno. >> today san francisco values become america's values.

[ applause and cheers ] >> thank you for your introduction and hospitality tore bringing us to city all and for your decades of fighting for equal rights for all americans and, of course, i want to shout out to gavin newsom who put a face on television across the world of what a marriage between a same- sex couple looks like. not all that scary. dell -- we did it. and also, of course, to our city attorney who said not only would he take it to court and defend us, but did it so successfully with justice stewart by his side. and made all the rational legal case for what we see today realized across the nation. i also want to recognize that our then county assessor

recorder, who issued the marriage licenses february 12th. >> yeah! >> mabel tang is with us, too. >> whoo! [ applause and cheers ] >> you know, it was a gay man who came out 46 years ago in 1969. i'm a stonewall baby. >> whoo! >> for those of us who came out at that time it was to announce to the world that we were mentally ill outlaws. it took until 1973 for the american psychiatric association to drop homosexuality from the list of mental illnesses. thanks to willie brown in 1976, california no longer considered it a felony for adults of the same gender to have consensual sex. so that is from where we are coming. and when we took the law that gavin newsom decided he would

break because it was clearly unconstitutional, but he knew that back then, to the state legislature, there were a lot of democrats who were afraid of it. somehow it was considered politically dangerous. but when we put it in schwarzenegger's desk in 2005, yes, to face a veto and put it on his desk again in 2007, we had dispelled the myth that there's anything politically dangerous for standing up for the respect and dignity and validation of all human life because we had twice as many coauthors on the bill and we had many more votes for it when we put it on the desk of governor schwarzenegger. clearly not a man of vision. [ laughter ] i suspect he will be long remembered in history as the george wallace for the struggle blocking the door of the hall of justice and saying no twice. but we have come long and far

from that day. we newly that this myth that we even here perpetuated by a number of number of supreme court justices today that the definition of marriage hasn't been changed for thousands of years why change it now? i say this to my friends in the press in particular, when anyone says to you that they are defending traditional marriage, ask them what their definition of traditional marriage is? is it the definition of marriage as we know it from the bible that if the bride is not a virgin on her wedding day that we stone her to death? is that your definition of traditional marriage? or is it the definition of marriage up until the mid 19th century until women could not sign contracts independent of their husbands because they and their labor were literally and legally the property of their husbands? is that the definition of marriage you're defending? or before the fact of divorce

until death do us part? a lifetime commitment, is that your definition of marriage? or prior the invention of contraception, when marriage was defined as the legal vehicle for procreation, but contraception changed all that. so today, when two individuals a potential equal, equal economic means, decide to get married, maybe for a lifetime, maybe not, maybe to create a family, maybe not, that not only are equal marriage rights for same-sex couples obvious, it becomes inevitable. and that inevitability happened today. >> whoo! [ applause and cheers ] >> and kate is right. it's been a collaborative effort. and now with that wall

demolished, how much longer can a republican-led congress not support ending discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in employment and in housing and in public accommodation? [ applause and cheers ] how do you get married this morning and fired from your job this afternoon because of the gender of your spouse? it's got to end and because of today's decision it will end sooner rather than later. thank you all for all your work. [ applause and cheers ] >> there are a number of unsung heroes who made today possible. and one of them labored for hours before we issued that first marriage license. in addition to mabel, i want to acknowledge the former county clerk of san francisco, nancy alfaro. nancy. [ applause ]

>> it, it's ait takes a village. we have had fabulous leadership on the san francisco board of supervisors for quite some time. but i think never more than now. and particularly, it's great to have them celebrating with us so i want to begin by introducing fabulous supervisor from district 8 scott weiner. >> thank you. first of all, let's hear it for mark leno for his work. [ applause and cheers ] can you even imagine getting a bill to the governor's desk in 2005 and 2007 and doing that work and helping to lead the way? so thank you mark. days like today make me so proud to be part of this lgbt community. this is a community when you look at our history, it's a history of society telling us to shut up and sit down and be invisible and go in the closet

and disappear. time and time again this community has said hell no, we're not going anywhere. we are here. we are part of this society. and we will always be part of this society. [ applause ] >> and they tried to do it to us at stonewall during the hiv epidemic. they tried to do it to us with bowers v hardwick with a federal marriage amendment and every time we have fought and we have won. and today we win again. it is a giant step forward but our work isn't done and this is a tidal wave. we are going to get employment protection and housing protection. we're going to beat the hiv epidemic once and for all. we are going to take care of our seniors and youth and we are going to win. have a great pride weekend. [ applause and cheers ]

>> and because we have an abundance of riches on the board of supervisors, we want to hear from a couple more providing also tremendous leadership, supervisor david campos. [ applause and cheers ] >> thank you everyone. thank you to the elected family. it's great to see the judges. i don't know for those of you, um, who are my age, you know, i was watching this morning with my husband as the opinion was being issued and i never thought in my lifetime that i would see that. and so i would like to give a brief moment of silence as we think about harvey milk, as we think about all the people that we know fought for this struggle, that could not be here to see this day that we're seeing today. [ pause ]

>> thank you. i know harvey is watching. but i also know and i don't mean to spoil the party because there is a lot to celebrate but i know that the harvey milks of the world who have fought for this day would also remind us that as important as legal equality is the fact is we have a great deal of inequality in this country that in this city we have the fastest growing inequality of any city in this united states. that we have brothers and sisters in the lgbt community, i see teresa sparks and i think about our transgender community, where unemployment -- where unemployment is -- is more than 50%. 40% of our homeless are queer. and so we need to take this victory and the only way that i

think we can honor and properly celebrate is to commit ourselves to make sure that we continue to fight for social justice and it's not just legal equality but it's social, economic equality for every member of our community. [ applause ] we should not rest. just the other day bevan dufty we opened a homeless shelter for lgbt adults. that's a very good thing. but our work is not done until we address the fact that queer people who are homeless are afraid to be in our shelter system. that they are still being abused and discriminated. and our work should not end until we actually have no more homeless places like san

francisco until every, single member of our community can actually be able to achieve their fullest potential until the american dream truly is a reality for all of you was. thank you very much. [ applause ] >> thank you, david. we're not done! providing tremendous leadership on the board of supervisors and tremendous leadership to the city, please welcome the president of the board of supervisors, london breed. [ applause ] >> on behalf of london breed, i accept this award. [ laughter ] >> thank you very much for recognizing everything i have done for the city. okay. [ laughter ] >> one of my favorite city leaders, um, who i love what he has contributed to the city and his tremendous support of me and nclr and our entire committee our treasurer jose cisneros.

>> good morning! >> whoo! >> i join you in being proud but i'm also proud to tell you that for over 10 years i have been and openly gay latino elected official here in san francisco. [ applause ] >> and i'm proud of everything we have all done to make this day possible. but i want to share one of the things i'm personally proud of, as well. the last year i was able to legally marry my partner of 25 years mark kelleher who is up on the stage with us today. like so many of you, like so many of you, we have been able to make our relationship just as responsible just as legal just as important and just the same as everybody else's in this country. thank you and we're all proud of the u.s. supreme court. keep up the good work and have a great weekend. [ applause ] we're going to wrap up, he

think. but we'll -- we're going to wrap up, i think, but we'll see with a representative of the city college of san francisco. city college is right in my neighborhood. and such an important institution for the city and county of san francisco. and with this leadership, it's going to continue to provide the tremendous service that it does to the city. please welcome, ccsf board member alex randolph. [ applause ] >> hello, everybody. what a morning. welcome to city hall. as one of the newest openly gay elected officials here in san francisco, i can't tell you how excited i am to share this morning with you. i share this stage with our fabulous openly gay college board president rafael mandleman, who couldn't be here unfortunately today. i also share this stage with our pioneers who previously served at the college board leslie katz andrea shorter,

lawrence wong, and others. and the first openly gay trustee who led the cause. and, of course, this month i was very excited to support and yesterday we voted to appoint susan lamb the first lesbian chancellor at city college. [ applause ] >> despite what you might read in the news media i have no doubt that city college will be there for the next several decades to provide education to our community and our city. but i want to recognize that city college is a pioneer one of the first colleges in the country to provide an lgbt studies class that broke pioneers and barriers educating about our community and our history. and i can't wait for the day that kate and some of you will come and teach at city college about this day, this movement, and the history that we made. thank you so much for

supporting city college. thank you so much for being here today. happy pride. [ applause ] >> so i want to finish up with another acknowledgement and then a short poll. so the acknowledgement is, he is not here today but he was certainly standing side by side with mark leno and with nclr in working on the bills in helping us with the lawsuit. jeff kors and equality california. >> now a short poll. i want to know in this audience here who got married in 2004. raise your hand. awesome. who got married in 2008? who is going to get married this weekend? [ laughter ] >> no. laugh [ laughter ] >> so the good news is, the good news is, you don't have to just because we can. [ laughter ]

>> but -- >> whoo!!! [ applause ] >> but your lives and your future so much better because we can. let's celebrate. let's know that we're not done. it's going to be an amazing pride weekend. thank you for everything. and tonight at 6 p.m. in the castro we'll be celebrating again. [ applause and cheers ] listening in at san francisco city hall we heard from a number of speakers. so many of them echoing the sentiments we have been bringing you from regular people gathering in front of san francisco city hall all morning long since we heard the supreme court decision legalizing same-sex marriage across the united states. so many people there cheering today's decision but again echoing what we heard from the president that there is still a lot of work to do. yes, marriage is now legal

across the country. but there are many other battles still being fought. we saw a number of people we recognized from san francisco city hall. herrera, leno, one of the same- sex couples at the center of the issue for the past many, many years. as our sky fox takes a broader view over san francisco city hall it seems as though it's going to be almost a back to work day for many in the city but there are events planned there at san francisco city hall this evening at 6:00 also at san jose city hall tonight. a lot of people sort of buzzing and now for those people who are celebrating, it's going to be tough to get back to the business of a regular workday or schoolday because certainly, this decision changes everything. >> yeah. we also heard from mayor lee and kate kendall. mayor lee said did you feel the earth shaking this morning? talking about the supreme court decision. kate said that she hopes that

this decision goes beyond same- sex marriage but instead moves toward, you know, dealing with other issues in terms of race, housing equality. she mentioned that, as well. want to go back to -- we are going back out to -- >> look. in the middle of the picture, the man we have been expecting to hear from. >> our former mayor, now lieutenant governor, the fabulous one of the men that i most admire on the planet, gavin newsom. >> sorry i'm late. you have a lot to do and a lot to celebrate. more importantly, a lot to be proud of today. i heard some words on wednesday night that president obama made that made me really reflect and think about this moment. the president said, he said, courage comes in many different

forms. courage comes at a time of war. courage comes from quiet perseverance. courage comes in the form of moral courage. ghandi and king and mandela. and then there's the courage of many of you that courage to be who you are. the courage to stand up and make that remarkable statement to a friend or loved one that, i'm gay. this is who i am. this is who i love. the courage so many of you must have had when you walked down the hall and said, mom, i got something i want to tell you. that's remarkable courage. and that's the courage we are celebrating today. had it not been for all of you for those millions and millions

of conversations. without it there would be no supreme court decision like the one we had today. so thank you to all of you. for your quiet courage. for your perseverance for your belief in each other and your belief in this most foundational principal that love is what it's all about. love marriages family marriages and that's what we're affirm today. it's a day of affirmation and a celebration of everything that makes i think this country a special place. and how appropriate -- and i'll close here, how appropriate that right behind us, mayor lee and others are going to walk in to celebrate the founding of the united nations that happened here today 70 years ago. how probability.