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Thousands attend ‘Restore Our Humanity’ rally to support same-sex marriage

Posted at 10:39 PM, Dec 23, 2013
and last updated 2013-12-24 16:30:42-05

SALT LAKE CITY -- A joyous crowd gathered outside of Salt Lake's City and County Building Monday evening.

After an organizer promised a "surprise" to the gathering crowd at 6pm, The Hardy Brother's Band played as more people arrived and found their places.

The "surprise" was a marriage. The quick exchange of vows for Clyde Peck and Stan Trujillo ended with an eruption of cheers as they were pronounced "husband and husband".

In the crowd were also two men who intend to marry, but haven't yet.

Derek Kitchen and Moudi Sbeity are one of the three couples named in the case which challenged Utah's Third Amendment.

Hundreds of same sex couples have wed since last Friday after a federal judge declared the amendment "unconstitutional".

Kitchen and Sbeity say they'll wait to wed. Their hope is that the case they started might ultimately be heard and settled - in their favor - by the Supreme Court of the United States. Such a ruling could impact same sex marriage in all 50 states.

During the rally, Cliff Rosky of Equality Utah announced his organization and the Utah Pride Center are joining the court case, which currently sits with the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver.

The rally was organized by Mark Lawrence. He asked the crowd to donate money via restorehumanity.org to be used for legal costs associated with the case.