Ashley Adams and Madeline Shelton didn’t have much time to pick out their wedding outfits, but they were both happy with what they wore to their Dec. 17 “microwedding,” as they called it, in Beaverton, Ore.
“We didn’t get to do the whole bridal-shop experience,” said Ms. Adams, 25, a respiratory therapist in Portland, Ore. “I found my dream dress online instead.” The white gown she chose in November, after Donald J. Trump was elected president for a second term, was not the only important discovery she made online last month.
She and Ms. Shelton, 26, a kindergarten teacher, also found Justine Broughal through the internet. Ms. Broughal, an owner of Greater Good Events, an event planning company, is one of hundreds of wedding vendors donating their services or offering them at a steep discount to L.G.B.T.Q. couples who worry that a second Trump term could lead to the end of their right to legally marry. (And although the president-elect did not explicitly discuss same-sex marriage in his latest campaign, that has not stopped many from worrying that the majority-conservative Supreme Court could roll back protections.)
Deirdre Alston, a wedding photographer in Brooklyn, helped start the initiative on Nov. 6. “I’m a queer woman myself, and I spend a lot of time photographing queer weddings and elopements,” she said. “My first thought when I woke up the morning after the election was, ‘What if they overturn Obergefell?’” she said, referring to Obergefell v. Hodges, the 2015 Supreme Court ruling that guaranteed same-sex marriage rights. “I felt so helpless. I thought, I should just offer myself.”
Minutes later, she was on Instagram offering L.G.B.T.Q. couples marrying at the Manhattan Marriage Bureau before the end of 2024 a free wedding-day photo shoot. (She has since extended the offer to the presidential inauguration on Jan. 20, 2025.) “It absolutely took off and spiraled into this massive thing,” she said.
United States Magistrate Judge Ryon M. McCabe, of the Federal District Court in West Palm Beach, Fla., granted the government’s request on Monday to keep the suspect, Ryan W. Routh, in jail without bond. So far, Mr. Routh has been charged with unlawful possession of a firearm as a felon, which carries a penalty of up to 15 years in prison, and with possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number.
Within days, she had 30 new weddings on her calendar, and she was hearing from other wedding professionals who wanted to join in. By Nov. 12, Ms. Alston and another photographer, Hannah Gunnell, had started a spreadsheet with the names of like-minded colleagues nationwide whom they hoped to bring on.
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