Gallery | Marriage equality supporters, gay allies, VIPs attend Freedom to Marry party in South Beach

BY STEVE ROTHAUS, srothaus@MiamiHerald.com

Several dozen supporters of marriage equality for gay and lesbian couples attended a Freedom to Marry reception Saturday night in South Beach.

Among the VIPs: newly engaged Good Morning America weather anchor Sam Champion and his fiancé, Miami fine-arts photographer Rubem Robierb; Broadway composer-conductor Ron Abel (Lucie Arnaz's Babalu & Latin Roots, celebrating the music of her father, Desi Arnaz); Miami International Film Festival executive director Jaie Laplante, and South Miami Mayor Philip K. Stoddard.

The Miami Beach party was hosted by Jeff Ronci and Juan Talavera (pictured top with Champion and Robierb) at the home of Lois Whitman and Eliot Hess. Freedom to Marry Federal Director Jo Ellen Deutsch, who grew up in Miami-Dade County, attended the party with her parents who still live here.

"We've actually reaped the benefit of your work, so thank you very much," Champion told the crowd of well-wishers.

Abel (pictured with Champion) introduced a song he co-wrote, Any Once Upon a Time, which he dedicated to the marriage-equality movement:

ANY ONCE UPON A TIME CAN START A TALE OR NURSERY RHYME
STORIES PASSED TO YOUNG ONES STILL
OF DICK AND JANE, AND JACK AND JILL
BUT THERE ARE TALES SO SELDOM TOLD
OF SUBJECTS EVERY BIT AS OLD
AND THOSE AFRAID TO SPEAK THE WORD
PREFER THOSE STORIES GO UNHEARD.
 
NO WONDER WE GROW UP IN DOUBT
NOT KNOWING WHAT OUR LOVE’S ABOUT.
AND CHANGE FOR US WON’T COME UNTIL
DICK LOVES JACK, AND JANE LOVES JILL.
MAYBE THEN THE WORLD WILL SEE
THAT WE DON’T LOVE SO DIFFERENTLY
OUR STORIES SOUND ALIKE IT SEEMS
ALL OF US SHARING THE SAME HOPES AND DREAMS
 
ANY ONCE UPON A TIME
ANY ONCE UPON A TIME
ANY ONCE UPON A TIME CAN START A TALE OF LOVE LIKE YOURS, LIKE MINE.
 
THERE ARE THOSE THAT SAY THEY KNOW BETTER
AND THEY’LL TRY TO KEEP US APART
NO ONE CAN SAY WHO WE FALL IN LOVE WITH
THAT’S A MATTER FOR THE HEART.
 
ANY ONCE UPON A TIME
ANY ONCE UPON A TIME
ANY ONCE UPON A TIME CAN START A TALE OF LOVE LIKE YOURS, LIKE MINE.
 
ANY ONCE UPON A TIME
ANY ONCE UPON A TIME CAN START A TALE OF LOVE LIKE YOURS, LIKE MINE
LIKE MINE.

Click here to view more pictures from the party. Photos by STEVE ROTHAUS / Miami Herald Staff.

Comments

[Nick Rutkowsky]

Do you really think South Florida cares, Steve?

[TubeSalvation]

Repent of your "Abominations" God is coming soon ;(

[Fitzzz]

I'M all for gay rights, and equality for all,but I question just how serious many other gays are when it come to following rules
I think a good example would be Rosie O"Donnel who several years back made a big thing about getting married to her partner in San Francisco, in City Hall
That relationship ended, did Rosie and her legal wife Kelly ever get a divorce
Was there a settlement reached?
Later Rosie took up with another woman, dropped her had her shipped back to Texas with her kids, than recently married agin
Just think if this had been a straight man, the charges that he could be facing ?

[Rscoach]

Beautiful!! Kudos to the amazing and talented Ron Abel and his partner Chuck Steffan for writing this soon to be classic love song in support of Gay Marriage - equal rights for all !!!!