You’re reading a story from Sidelines 100, a project showcasing a century of student storytelling at Middle Tennessee State University. Sidelines 100 plans to highlight 100 stories from the newspaper archives this fall and spring.

This story originally ran in the May 1, 1995, edition of Sidelines. Subscribe to our newsletter to stay on top of all things Sidelines 100.

The story has been updated for current basic AP style, but the wording in the story has not changed. Any ideas, perspectives or opinions do not necessarily reflect those of Sidelines.

What God has united together, let no man come between. Kay Keely and her fiancé, Nicole, mean no man.

Kay, 33, is a Photography Coordinator and coaches an all-men’s softball team during the summer. Nicole, 21, is a full-time MTSU student with two part-time jobs. But even with such hectic schedules, the wedding remains their top priority.

The wedding is officially set for May 20, 1995. It will be at the Brentmeade Congregational Church in Nashville. Although marriage for Kay and Nicole is illegal in Tennessee, they plan to walk down the aisle and say their vows like any other couple.

“Every couple has a need to be recognized. When you find your soulmate, it’s not only important to make that personal commitment to each other, but to share it with the community,” Kay explains.

Kay’s voice lowers and her sincerity is overwhelming. “Being gay doesn’t make that desire go away.”

“To me, I am taking back what was taken from me. The government has taken the right of acknowledgment away from me, but it can’t take away my commitment to my partner. All my life, I’ve heard ‘No you, can’t.’ Well, yes I can.”

Five churches in Nashville agree with Kay’s philosophy. They conduct a ceremony before God to unite gay couples together, but term it a Holy Union instead of a wedding.

“It is a wedding, though,” Kay argues. She contends that there is no difference between a ‘straight’ wedding and a ‘gay’ wedding. “The ceremony is both cases is merely to make the private commitment public and to celebrate the relationship.”

Kay and Nicole celebrate their relationship together everyday. But the government still doesn’t recognize homosexual couples, much less celebrate their relationships.

“The fact that the government doesn’t recognize same-sex marriages is a major setback,” Kay says.

“When a man and woman get married, the woman automatically takes the man’s last name. Lesbian couples pay for their names to be the same and have to lie about it, also.”

Kay recalls that two of her friends had a Holy Union, and to have the same last name, they had to hire a homosexual lawyer to go before the judge and tell him that the reason was become one of the women was extremely ashamed of her family name.

“A boldface lie … but what other choice did the government give them?” Kay asks.

Such is the case with same-sex marriages — they aren’t legal. The government doesn’t recognize them. Kay argues that non-recognition of same-sex marriage goes way beyond the issue of name changes.

“Government non-recognition hurts our community on the level of moral standards as well.”

Kay argues that a long, drawn-out divorce is not a threat, which makes it way too easy for couples to just walk out of marriage.

Kay and Nicole have discussed the issue thoroughly and have mutually agreed to try everything from counseling to a guru before calling it quits.

Kay states that, “marriage is a lifetime commitment that you make before God and everybody.”

And as a God-fearing Christian, Kay takes the ‘before God’ part very seriously.

Flipping through her Bible, Kay murmurs under her breath, “God didn’t mean for humans to judge one another.” She holds her place in the Bible and looks up. “And our society is very judgmental.”

“For instance, the Bible says Jesus was a nice-looking man in his 30s. He was unmarried and he hung around with 12 other men everyday. He even kissed them on the cheek.”

Kay continues, “Say, for instance, that he lives in our community right now, Nashville in 1995. What would our society say about him? They’d call him queer.”

Standing on her soapbox and the support of the Bible, Kay states that, “In the Old Testament, there are passages that say men should not sleep with men and women should not sleep with women. Man wrote those passages, just as man wrote modern-day law that says that homosexuality is wrong. Nowhere in the Bible does God say that being gay is a sin.”

“When God looked down on the sins of the world, he became angry and sent Moses with the 10 Commandments; there was no hidden clause of 11th Commandment that says that loving someone of the same sex will keep you out of the gates of Heaven.”

Kay pauses for a moment and looks up toward Heaven. Her voice is faint but sure. “God has a plan for the rest of my life and, hopefully, it includes Nicole.”

So, May, 20, Kay and Nicole shall makes that long walk down the aisle … together.

The gay community seems to prefer walking to the altar together rather than being “given” to the other. It is an active attempt to break the stereotype that the woman should be passed from the possession of her husband.

Laughing at the thought, Nicole says, “Which one of us would be the boy and which one of us would be the girl, anyway?”