Elaine: We like having our friends over, a group of women that we've known for many years and have so much in common with. We love to hang with them on our deck and in our basement rec room. Patty and I are very different — she's mostly country, I'm mostly jazz; I like to dance, she doesn't. With our group of friends, we can do everything we like and still be with each other. Pat: Elaine and I have things that we enjoy doing together and things that we like doing on our own, so it gives us a good balance. Elaine: When people say that they don't think gays should be allowed to marry, I'll say, "Why shouldn't Patty and I have that right? "Oh, they wouldn't have a problem with us marrying! It's like, they know us, so we're okay, but the gay people they don't know are scary. Pat: A big thing seems to be they feel the family's threatened. How does our relationship threaten a traditional family? We cut our grass just like all our neighbors. We pay the same taxes our neighbors pay, and they have so many benefits that we don't. Elaine: We're just regular people trying to live a regular life. We don't do anything much different than anybody else — except fly our rainbow flag, just to let them know we're here.
Together since November 16, 1996