Religious institutions should have religious freedom on this issue. No church or minister should ever have to conduct a marriage that is inconsistent with their religious beliefs. But I think as a civil institution, this issue’s time has come and we need to move forward.
The reason for not getting married was that I just didn’t have a partner to get married to. Climbing mountains was more attractive to me than marriage, or other fun things like that.
I guess you kind of got to realize that once you in a marriage, whatever it is, you gotta deal with it. Not necessarily that you got to accept it, but you have to deal with it and try your best to make it work for you, for the both of you.
I got married at 22 and remained in an abusive marriage for 10 years. I made up my mind that that was never going to happen to me again. I made a brave step to walk out in a society when you didn’t walk out of an abusive marriage. It was mental and physical abuse.
People used to say my son looked like a Mexican Biggie. And when he was first born, memories of Biggie… you know, we didn’t always have the greatest days. For at least half the length of our marriage we were separated, so everyday was definitely not a good day.