Under the direction of Fair Wisconsin, side-by-side with thousands of LGBT and allied Wisconsinites, John and I canvassed door-to-door, made endless phone calls to voters, persuaded everyone we could.  Ultimately, we failed to prevent the discriminatory marriage ban, a devastating defeat to us and to all the people who had worked so hard to preserve fairness in Wisconsin.  A terrible conclusion to a year which had dawned so brightly, as we began our lives together.

When, less than three years after the marriage ban, Governor Doyle announced domestic partnership protections as part of the state budget, John and I found a reason to hope that our hard work in 2006 had not been in vain.  We rallied to Fair Wisconsin's call to share our story, and a month later, John was addressing the Joint Finance Committee at the budget hearing in West Allis.  He spoke about the fear we face each day, the devastating possibilities of one of us being incapacitated and the other legally unable to make critical decisions.  Three months later, our pro-fairness Governor signed domestic partnerships into law.

As we waited at the Brown County Courthouse last August 3rd, impatient to declare our commitment to each other here in the State of Wisconsin, we certainly took a moment to reflect how far we've come, how far we have to go.  Domestic partnerships are not full equality.  But John and I have some measure of security.  The comfort of knowing one of us will not be turned away from the other's hospital bedside, that if something should happen to one of us, the other has survivor protections under the law.  We are better able to care for each other than we were previously.  And that is certainly something to celebrate.

- Michael Knaapen (Milwaukee)