Peter Hams: (Son of the first same-sex couple to wed in Massachusetts )
Growing up in Cambridge , Massachusetts , it took some time for Merrimack College student and lifelong hockey player Peter Hams to realize that his family wasn't the same as everyone else's. As a child, it never occurred to him to worry about being different; all he knew was that he had two moms – Marcia and Sue – and that he loved them both. When he got older, however, the differences became more apparent, and Peter began to keep his family's identity a secret, referring to Sue as his “aunt” in public. In many ways, he went into the closet. Over the years, Peter told a few people – his close friends, his college roommate – about his family, but largely, it was a topic he avoided, particularly at hockey practice. “Did I feel guilty?” Peter asked. “Of course. Every time I said 'Aunt' Sue, there was an inner struggle . . . I didn't have a word to explain who Sue was, so I began to hide a part of me. Over time, you get aggravated at yourself and disappointed in yourself, like you aren't living to your full potential, because what you want to say is, yes, of course, she's my other mother. At least, that's the way it should be.” However, all the secrecy ended when Peter's family received national publicity because his moms became the first same-sex couple to marry in Massachusetts . Peter came out to support his moms publicly, speaking about his love for them everywhere from The Today Show to The New York Times . He challenged people to ask themselves, “In a world with so many problems, why is everybody making a damn fuss because two people love each other?” At least in his case, the fuss is now a positive one: Marcia and Sue recently celebrated their one-year anniversary (where else?) on the ice at one of Peter's hockey games that was covered nationwide by ESPN .
from Human Rights Campaign
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