This past Friday, a judge in Arkansas ruled the ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional. Many same-sex couples rushed to tie the knot, but the first to do so were Kristin Seaton and Jennifer Rambo. The woman who officiated this first wedding as well as many to follow is coming to be known as the "woman in the rainbow dress". This woman's real name is Laura Phillips, and she couldn't have been more proud to not only have been present at the first same-sex wedding in Arkansas, but be the one to officiate it.
It seems that standing up for equality might run in the Phillips family. Laura Phillips is the mom of Will Phillips, the young boy that back in 2010 refused to stand up and say the pledge of allegiance in school because of discrimination against LGBT people.
Sometimes parents can learn so much from their own children, and it looks like the Laura Phillips has taken a page from her son's book.
When the time came to say “and by the power vested in me by the state of Arkansas,” Phillips didn’t just state it, she yelled it, while the crowd surrounding them cheered and wiped away tears.
“I might have been yelling with my whole heart. I was shaking,” Phillips said of that moment. “I had to pull over on the way home. It was amazing and it’s still kind of sinking in — the magnitude of what happened yesterday.” By the time the clerk closed for the day, 15 same-sex couples received marriage licenses.
According to BuzzFeed, Laura rushed to the Carroll County Courthouse on Saturday morning to help with marrying these couples.
“I wanted to make sure that there was someone there to officiate,” Phillips said. “I’m on the board of directors for the Northwest Arkansas Center for Equality, and I wanted to be there in case anything went wrong.”