This Couple Got Married During Philadelphia's Black Lives Matter Protest
While Black Lives Matter protests took place in Philadelphia on Saturday, a couple celebrated their wedding (and were photographed doing so).
The couple joined the protests after their ceremony, with the crowd giving them the chance to hold hands and kiss in the middle of the street.
The couple, who have Jamaican and Caribbean heritages, found the moment "empowering."
While thousands of protestors took to the streets of Philadelphia to fight for police brutality and racial injustice after the needless killing of George Floyd, one particular couple stood out among the crowd: a bridge and groom, looking like they just stepped out of a wedding magazine.
Kerry-Anne and Michael Gordon were tying the knot in a small ceremony at the Logan Hotel when they stepped outside to see thousands of demonstrators cheering along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. Instead of ignoring the situation outside and carrying on with the nuptials, the couple, who had already postponed their larger wedding party to next year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, chose to do what everyone else was doing; they joined in on the protest, bridal attire and all.
It turned out to be a significant and powerful moment for the couple, as they told ABC News about their special day. “Not only are we feeling the movement of the people,” Kerry-Anne told the publication, “but I’m meeting my husband, on our wedding day, as a strong black man and a good representative of who we are as people, what men are like, what our culture is like.”
“It was a very, very, empowering moment for us considering all of this is happening at one moment in one time.”
The fact that people were protesting for racial equality while they were getting married put things even more into perspective for the Gordons, as Kerry-Anne was born in Jamaica while Michael has Caribbean ancestry.
“We all see this injustice,” Michael told ABC News about getting married while Black Lives Matter marches, protests, and demonstrations continue outside. “We all want to see this needle shift away from the status quo… That made this day more memorable in ways.”
And to sum up the sweet moment within what Michael said was a peaceful protest—the larger crowd made way for the newlyweds to kiss and hold hands in the middle of the street.
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