Looking to improve your marriage prospects by catching a wedding bouquet? Then consider attending the Tournament of Roses Parade on New Year’s Day in Pasadena, where a gay couple from Los Angeles will get married atop a float sponsored by AIDS Healthcare Foundation.
Aubrey Loots, 42, and Danny Leclair, 45, together for over a decade, will tie the knot on the float. AHF’s “Living the Dream” float will highlight its pitch that ‘love is the best protection” against HIV infection.
Loots, originally from South Africa, and Leclair, from Canada, together own Studio DNA Salons, which operates hair salons in Los Angeles and Santa Monica. Loots also shares the distinction of being recognized as a Wella Top Artist who serves celebrity and regular clients alike while his soon-to-be husband manages the day-to-day operations.
“Having my relationship recognized legally is already a dream come true. To be able to declare my love to the world at large in hopes of inspiring others to live proudly and authentically is an enormous honor,” Leclair said.
“It’s awe inspiring to be committing your life to another person and to have millions of people bear witness. I didn’t imagine this happening in my lifetime,” added Loots.
Joining them on AHF’s float will be Sharon Raphael and Mina Meyer, a lesbian couple together 42 years who were legally married in California in 2008. Raphael, a retired college professor, and Meyer have played key roles in both LGBT history and in the fight against HIV/AIDS in Los Angeles. They served on the AIDS Hospice Committee and were involved in the creation of Chris Brownlie Hospice in Elysian Park, the first licensed AIDS hospice in California, which closed this past January and was the forerunner of today’s AIDS Healthcare Foundation.
Raphael and Meyer first met as four- and five-year-old neighbors and friends in Cleveland, OH. They reconnected decades later as adults in Southern California
“We are very proud to represent AIDS Healthcare Foundation and historic achievements in the struggle for marriage equality. After 42 years together, we can look back on five years of marriage, and now with DOMA overturned by the Supreme Court, we and other legally married Gay couples are eligible for equal treatment from Social Security,” Raphael and Meyer said in a statement.
“Today, as wedding bells ring for more and more gay and lesbian Americans like Aubrey and Danny and Mina and Sharon, AIDS Healthcare Foundation’s 2014 Tournament of Roses Parade float is proud to honor and celebrate those ‘Living the Dream,’ confident in the knowledge that love is indeed the best protection,” said Michael Weinstein, AHF president.
Please, Sal! For the past 124 years, the Rose Parade has been heavily influenced by gay men and women. Pretty much like most entertainment that your children enjoy. I guess you had no idea?
The Tournament of Roses Parade was, for the past 124 years, the one show every year the kids could get up early for and enjoy without a parent’s concern. That ends now. Contraty to the very loud and PC correct LGBT groups, this is NOT the American way and has no place in this parade. Shame on you Rose Parade for bowing to this group.