TRAILBLAZERS CELEBRATE 20TH ANNIVERSARY

Same-sex marriage was legalized in B.C. on July 8, 2003. Sixteen days later, Annabree and Natasha

Fairweather made history when they became the first same-sex couple to be married in Kamloops

SEAN BRADY STAFF REPORTER sbrady@kamloopsthisweek.com

The two women behind Kamloops’ first samesex marriage are celebrating their 20-year anniversary.

Annabree and Natasha Fairweather were married on July 24, 2003, just 16 days after B.C. legalized same-sex marriage on July 8, 2003.

The couple met at Safe Spaces youth group, then a federally funded program that had started up in the late 1990s. The program for LGBTQ and 2S (two-spirit) youth between the ages of 12 and 26 is today operated by Interior Community Services

“When I was a young person first coming out, the community was hard to find,” Annabree told KTW. “There were gay dances down at the Old Yacht Club and there were safe spaces and youth support groups … and those things were life lines to me as a young person finding my own way.”

The couple moved from Kamloops shortly after tying the knot, landing in Alberta, where both attended the University of Lethbridge and lived in that city for 16 years before returning to B.C.

They now live in the Lower Mainland.

Natasha said upon arriving in Alberta, the couple quickly found community — and some conflict, encountering an anti-same-sex marriage rally shortly after arriving.

“Annabree and I, newlyweds and new to town, held hands and walked right into the middle of it and we found an amazing group of counterprotesters,” Natasha said.

The two said Lethbridge changed a lot over the course of those 16 years, as many places did.

Having grown up as a gay youth in Kamloops, Annabree said she watched as the city made similar progress, to the point of having its inaugural Pride Parade in 2017, which she said the couple attended in spirit, with many friends still in town involved in planning and seeing it through.

Growing up, however, that progress was a bit harder to see.

Annabree said when dances for gay youth ended at the Old Yacht Club, it was a bittersweet end of an era.

“We recognized that there didn’t need to be secluded gay dances in out-of-the-way spots, all ‘hush-hush’ anymore, because gay people could just go to the bar a little more safely,” she said. “But that was also what was exciting about being a young gay person in the early 2000s.”

Asked for her thoughts on LGBTQ rights these days, Annabree said she has some concerns over the current debate over transgender rights, including drag queen events and “living out loud.”

“Ten years ago, I had a lot more hope about expanding rights and more social supports for queer people and all kinds of spectrums and diversity in people,” Annabree said.

“We’re seeing a lot of backlash at the moment and I don’t know where that’s going, but it is a concern for me and my kids, who live in a queer family.”

Natasha, meanwhile, pointed to the giant magnifying lens that is social media and said the backlash likely appears bigger than it actually is.

“We were recently at Coquitlam’s very first Pride Day event. It was small, but so enthusiastic and it was heartfelt and heartwarming and nothing but love and happiness and good energy,” Natasha said.

To start their family, the couple used artificial insemination to conceive, with each taking a turn carrying a child.

Natasha said the couple had some problems in health care while trying to conceive, but life with kids thereafter has been just like any other family.

Natasha said the couple has asked their kids, who are now 8 and 11, if anyone has ever teased them about having two moms.

“They look at us like we have two heads. It’s just, ‘Why would anyone ever tease us about that?’ The world is just so different now,” she said.

Annabree said the couple’s kids are well supported, with family and extended family around for all of the usual ups and downs that come with life.

After 20 years of marriage, Natasha said the key is to approach every problem together.

“But on a more joking note, the only secret to marriage that I can say is that if you want to have a good marriage, you should have married me,” she said, laughing.

ABOVE: Annabree and Natasha were married in Riverside Park on July 24, 2003, in what was the first same-sex marriage in Kamloops. Same-sex marriage was legalized in B.C. 16 days earlier. The couple contacted about 20 people on the list of marriage commissioners before finding one — Patricia Tait — who would perform the ceremony.

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