Marriage Matters: Sharing Our Stories

Michiganders Lori and Cin Diné consider themselves very lucky. The couple, who have been together for 11 years, and their three children are all covered by Lori's medical insurance. Although they spent five years and tens of thousands of dollars trying to have children, they now are the parents of three "beautiful, smart, and well adjusted children."

"One of the reasons we would like the ability to get married is to have access to the same benefits that married couples take for granted," said Lori. "The biggest advantage for us would be our children. I have adopted Cin's child and she mine. In order for us to do this we actually had to make our children wards of the state and then we both had to adopt them back. This in itself was very stressful. The court room was actually locked so nobody could come in and fight the adoptions or try to adopt the kids from under us. Just the overall legitimacy of our family (in the law's eyes) for our kids' sake would be my main reason. Another reason is that while Cin has health benefits through my company I am actually taxed for extra income. I guess I could go on forever..."

Read through other families' stories here:

• Carmen and Anisia Machado
• Denise and Treeva Liggett-Creek
• Shelley Hayes and Mary Horvath
• Terri Miller and Cindy Simms
• Mark McKinney and Steve Lepre
• Jennifer Lin and Jeanne Fong
• Lori and Cin Diné
• Gita Deane and Lisa Polyak
• Nigel Simon and Alvin Williams
• Jo Rabb and Takia Foskey
• Lisa Laurey and Toni Williamson
• Richard Phelps and Mitchell Wood
• Desiree Leone and Carolee Stoll
• Barry Clayton and Michael Garaza
• Stephanie Furness and Shannon Kearns
• Charles Blackburn and Glen Dehn
• Delia Meraz and Persephone Gonzalez
• Amorie Robinson and Hattie Alexander-Robinson