Transcripts For CSPAN2 Book Discussion On Love Wins 20160626

Well thank you so much for coming. I appreciate it very much. So many of you come from out of town. Thank you. [applause]. I appreciate that. What were going to do is let the party continue and you can hang around as long as you want. I will be signing books as long as there are people who want their books assigned to. Im happy to do that just to hang out. Please tell your friends about socrates in the city. Please read the book, please if you dont want to read the book at least by several copies if you dont mind. We will leave it at that. God bless bless you and god bless america. [applause]. [inaudible] [inaudible] up next on book tv Debbie Cenziper again Jim Obergefell talk about their book love wins. [inaudible] [inaudible] hello there. Welcome. I am jack schlegel. Health professionals today considered the lgbt Network Organization was founded in 1983. That is 33 years ago. As a nonprofit our professional has a threefold mission, one, career. We offer seminars and workshops on career transition and professional development. Two, community. Community. We help members build lgbt business relationships at breakfast and after work mixers. Three, culture. We program theater parties, screenings, walking tours, bus trips, and author appearances like tonight. When youre happy to remember back one of our professional favorites. For ten years he directed movie features and produced new stories at us weekly. He has conducted q as withs with dozens of newsmakers and has provided commentary on cnn, msnbc, good morning america, and the today show. As a media manager at family equality council, he was present for the Marriage Equality arguments at the Supreme Court. Please welcome bradley jacobs. [applause]. At the miami herald she was the member of its Pulitzer Prize winning investigative reporting team. At the Washington Post, she, she has reported on the failure of local groups to provide services to people with aids. Her investigative reporting has led to changes in federal law. Its regarding huds Housing Program for the poor. She is the distinguished coauthor of love wins. Please welcome Debbie Cenziper. [applause]. Foreign policy magazine has named him one of the global thinkers. Proud magazine included him in his annual out 100. As the main plaintiff in last years of precourt Marriage Court Marriage Equality case, he became the face of a movement and a legal ground breaker. He is coauthor of love wins, the book whose National Launch we celebrate today. Please welcome Jim Obergefell. [inaudible] were reminded that there is legal right after this and the mayor and the governor will be there. So i think therell probably be groups talking on them from here and down there. We know what has happened in orlando will come up there and there our conversation, i dont want to be afraid of it but i want to talk about jim, the book, in your journey together. I want to start with your last name. If you google over fell, and obama one of the first things that come up as a video of our president struggling to pronounce your last name. You were not there. But it look like some kind of press conference and he was pronouncing it wrong. But i notice when i watch the clip of you on cnn on Marriage Equality and the president called you on your cell phone and they were there to capture that incredible phone call. I found that phone call and heard anything about it that he actually avoided pronouncing your lessening. Last name. Lets talk about that phone call. When did you know that you are going to be getting a call . At some point that day someone said to me, we we have given a couple of phone numbers out in case anyone wants to call you. That is all they said. With the implication that it might be someone important. For me it came as a surprise, but i think anything could have happened in that moment and it would have been a surprise. I was just overwhelmed and in this moment where i cannot process what was going on. It could have been any person calling and i would have been amazed, but it was the president. For me i am really thrilled that cnn happen to be there. Im glad it happened right them because after i spoke with the president every single interview after that the very first question was, what did the president say, what did you say . I will tell you i have a transcript right here. He said [applause]. Barack, your body said im really proud of you, your, your leadership is change the country, you are bringing out lasting change and i cannot be more proud of you and your husband. He said he was proud twice. And then you said to the cnn anchor, thank you mr. President. You said you couldnt put into words, your stunt, and it was like nothing ever dreamed up. And when people ask me that i had no memory whatsoever of what the president said or what i said. In fact, i was nervous. I wandered over and over and over did i form complete sentences . Was i polite . With a respectful . I had no idea. So to be able to watch that was one of those moments of oi can relax now. At now. At least i did not make a fool of myself. But that was not the first time you have spoken with the president , right . You had talk with him at least once before earlier that week at a pride celebration at the white house. Correct. I had no opportunity opportunity to meet him at the white house for their pride month reception. Did he give you some kind of clue that it was going to happen . I was wondering that sounded like an apical breach . Well, what i remember him saying is that we are all looking forward to some positive news are hoping for some positive news this week. Something along those lines. So i do not know that he had any clue. I really do not think he knew. Im sure he didnt actually. He was hopeful. And that gave me hope. That was really wonderful. You have always described yourself as an accidental activist. Take us back and quickly summarize if you would how your name ended up as the lead plaintiff here. Back in 2013, june 26 of that year when the winter decision was announced, john my partner of over 20 years at that point was dying of als and was a bed ridden. I was his primary caregiver at home. When the decision was announced, i simply hugged him and kissed him and said lets get married. Luckily he said yes. We then had to go through that painful process of figuring out how to do that. But we made it happen. We came home from maryland where we got married on the tarmac, in a medical jet. We got back to cincinnati and that was all we wanted, to simply get married and live out the remaining days as husband and husband. By virtue of friends, friends, who is a civil rights attorney and telling her story, that civil rights attorney got in touch and in our first conversation with him he did something that change the course of our lives and which is turned into a change in our country. It was not planned, it it happened, and we filed suit in the state of ohio in federal court. And we won. Then later we are combined with five other cases from three other states and we lost an and appeals courts and we filed with the Supreme Court and the question was, how did it become known as overfill versus hodges, it is not complicated, mythical, or special. It is simple by virtue of time he. The Supreme Court when they consolidate cases they name it based on the lowest case number, thats all it was. Where are the lion share of the oberg fell and how did they feel having their name attached to this legendary, now iconic . I am the baby of six in all of my siblings and my nieces and nephews other than one who lives here in mine hatton, all of my nieces and nephews and my siblings are all still in Northern Ohio where he grew up. Over and over they tell me, specially my my siblings, they say jim, we cannot believe this is an ogre befell who who is doing this without there. You are in front of people and out there and speaking in doing this. No other oberg fell could have done that. They were happy and they were supportive of john and me since the moment he came into my life. They are just happy and glad its not them and that they will have rights. You do do not strike me as a limelight, loving person. You are an an it professional. Was there ever a moment where you are like i do not know if i want all of this. I dont know if i want my name in the paper or if i want to be thisi never think of myself as an icon i know when we filed suit our faces, our names, the video of us would be on the news and around the country. Theres always some trepidation we are very private people i never wanted to be someone people recognize. Someone wanted to stop in the street. But over the past two years it happened over and over. It happened on street corners here, it happened walking through times where and in airports. All across the country people see me, they recognized recognize me and they saw me. Pretty much thinking that it might be the day. Tell us a little bit about that. When did you find out it might be happening on the 25th question what. Been told by many people you should start showing up in d. C. Midjune. Its a big decision and typically they hold off on those decisions until the end of the term. They said start showing up in midjune just to be there. So i started being there for every decision day. At that point we thought well, monday june 29 because they only schedule decision days on monday. We thought monday june 29. The week of the 22nd, i was there on monday and that was the day they announced we are going to release decisions on thursday then they also added friday. That was when we all started to think wait, friday june 26, thats a somewhat important date for the Gay Rights Movement so we all started to think its going to be on friday. That morning i got to the Supreme Court, took my place in mind and i was just in the public line with 50 or 60 other people who were there to be in the courtroom in the atmosphere that morning was vastly different than every other morning. It was lighter, it was looser, it was happier, was happier, and i think it was because most of us thought june 26, we think this is a sign, people seemed happier and more upbeat. The other really amazing thing, every every time i been in court , standing in the public line when they hand out the tickets for the public spectators, every time we had been in line for oral arguments and decision days, the tickets were bright orange. That day they handed out the tickets, the Police Officer handed them out and we were chatting and i noticed something nobody else had remarked on and i held up the ticket and i said did you notice Something Different . The tickets that they were lavender. What better sign it had been orange every other single time. That day was lavender. May be assigned. May be assigned. Okay, so i was inside and they let all of us into the courthouse where we had to kill time standing in line for more and we entered the courtroom and were seated in the proceedings started and the chief justice said Justice Kennedy will read the first decision. They read the case number and i had only finally memorized at the day before. With that case number came out, i jumped in my seat, i know i squeaked or made some kind of noise. I was sitting by friends and im happy to report they still have all of their fingers as i squeeze their hands and they read the decision my first reaction was we won. I think we did. I he read some more and i thought we won but i wasnt really positive yet. Then it sunk in that we did actually win. I just burst into tears. All in that courtroom you could hear and see this electric feeling of joy and happiness, and for me there was this wonderful feeling of perhaps in my first time of my adult life of being honest with myself about who i was an honest with others, in that that part of my life, it was the first time i felt truly like an american. To hear a Supreme Court justice say john and jim, joe and rob, they are here, theyre also plaintiffs the their wonderful son cooper, pm and kelly, you all do matter. Your your relationships matter. Your children matter. I felt like part of we the people. I felt more american in that moment that we ever have in my adult life. [applause] not only that but Justice Kennedy referred to you in his writing. He wrote no union has more profound than marriage for the bodies the highest ideals of love fidelity, devotion, sacrifice and family. In forming a marital union, two people become something greater than once they were. Some of the petitioners demonstrate, marriage of bodies and love may endure past death. That was unquestionably you. And also david who joined our case in ohio. He and his husband had been together for years. They have three adopted children and they had married earlier in the summer. His husband died unexpectedly. There was another widower there with me as part of the site to say our husbands death certificates deserve to be accurate. Wonderful. So lets talk a little bit about what happened then. It was an interesting coming out of the courtroom. You can get out at first because there were crowds. Describe what that was like. So i was there, our attorney was there and jean sussex with the aclu and those that argued the case and court. There were other plaintiffs there, we all gathered in the hallway outside the courtroom and we were getting ready to exit the building and go down the stairs. In my mind i was just picturing all the landmark cases, all those important cases where you see the image of the plaintiffs walking down the steps, those iconic photos, and in my mind im thinking, i get to do this. This is really going to happen. Suddenly all these Police Officers went running out of the building and down the front steps. No one said anything. Another officer said you cant exit that way. You have to exit out the side of the building. I felt disappointed. I thought well, i want want to walk down the stairs. In that moment i felt kind of selfish thinking that but it was just one of those images, one of those rights that kind of go with that building in these cases, but we exited the site of the building and read reason we had to, the crowd had pushed forward past the barricade and they were on the steps of the building. There was such a celebration that people just pushed their way forward. Just for safety sake we didnt want to be walking down the steps in the big crowd. We exited the building and ended up on the sidewalk and walked to the plaza. The attorney and i are leaving the group and were going to the crowd and i didnt really realize this, debbie pointed it out because she was there, she said jim did you realize as you and al led the groups of plaintiffs and attorneys through that crowd, they split before you like the red sea. That is exactly how it was. I think back to that and i can see it, i just didnt realize it at the moment. Walking through that crowd, this palpable sense of joy on the plaza and to see the tears, smiles on the faces of all those people, it was was one of the most Beautiful Moments of my life. I realized in that moment, i thought im glad i didnt get to go down those steps because maybe i wouldnt have had this experience and this experience is better because i am in the midst of all these people because the 30 plaintiffs and i, we did we did this for everyone. We didnt do it for us. I got to celebrate with everyone i will never ever feel bad about not having that iconic photo of walking down the steps. I would get that back for the this experience over and over. Wonderful. So much as pause and talk to debbie for a minute or two. I want to catch up everyone else. You had been working with jim and following jim for several months before the Marriage Equality decision, right . Right. You are writing the book along while this happened. Right, so like millions of people i read about jims story and johns story in the Washington Post where i work as an Investigative Reporter and i knew i wanted to tell the story. I knew i wanted to write this book and so i immediately took an unpaid leave of absence from my job at the Washington Post to write this book. So that happen even before the Supreme Court decision. I did this in april because whichever way it went, i knew this was the story i wanted to tell. Now clear up how you guys know each other because you actually go back 20 years, right . John and jim were actually at my wedding 25 years ago and i remember, i remember that like yesterday. We were in touch off and on through the years through family and i last saw john at a family event in 2011, right before he was diagnosed with als. Were you related to john through marriage. Through marriage, yes. Because when you talked in another interview how you just called jim on the phone and said i have this agent whos interested in writing a book, i was like great, i dont know how you got his phone number and presented it to him. We were in touch off and on. John and jim were in Cincinnati Ohio when i lived in different states working for different newspapers. We we were in touch off and on. I had been thinking for years about writing a book. Every journalist wants to write a book. I was at the Washington Post writing lots of stories about government corruption and fraud and lots of people doing bad things and this was a completely different thing. This was about love and commitment and family and i was so moved by it that i knew this was the book i wanted to write. Its the first book. So jim, there is a story i read about you that i wasnt sure if i was pointed mention it. I thought it was very human. That friday, june 26, you had this amazing experience and you talk about walking and seeing all the smiling faces. Then you went to the airport and sat and had your plane delayed and what happened there . All alone, right . Yes, so after the decision i did some interviews and then i went to the reagan airport in d. C. To fly back to cincinnati because the next day was the pride parade in cincinnati and i was going to ride in that parade along with and paulette who married us and alan some of the other plaintiffs. I get to the airport. Feeling high. Feeling high and when i got to the gate and was using one of those tables where you can plug in and charge your phone, i was there and the woman next to me just turn to me and said congratulations. Then, delayed, delayed, delayed, and a little bit after 1 00 a. M. Usa are canted canceled the flight. Im frantic and so upset. All i can think is i want to get home to cincinnati and celebrate with my friend and neighbors and fellow cincinnati ends. Im just devastated and so upset i had been doing a lot of things with the Human Rights Campaign and they were such a help. They were trying to figure out, could they hire a car to get me home . Could they get me on a train . They find any other flight . They worked magic and found a flight the next morning. At about 1 30 a. M. I took a cab back to the city and slept an hour and a half, maybe i slept i dont know, and i took a taxi to dulles and went back home. I got my condo to drop things off and take a shower and get dressed and go to the parade. You sold. I did. I just had to be there. Everybody in the country was celebrating and people were just congregated in bars and homes and closets and champagne was popping all across the country and all i could think was i am missing it. Thats okay. I got to be in the pride parade and i finish that parade and hung out for a bit and went to another parade in San Francisco the next day. I have to tell you, that was the experience that was the moment that was really tough emotionally. I cried the entire parade route and i cried because as i was going down those streets with about 1 Million People lining the streets, so many of the people i passed on the sidewalk were a generation older than me. The generation who lost almost all of their friends to aids and to see the tears on their faces and to realize what they have lost and to know that they are thinking i wish this friend, this friend, this friend, my partner, all those people could see this. That was the most emotional moment for me. In those tears. I heard over and over that day and people in San Francisco and they said you have no idea how different this pride parade is. Its more real, its more honest, its more emotional. I heard that over and over and over. Wonderful. Thats really truly something you celebrate. That was just last year. Its hard to believe. Lets talk about the year. There have been a lot of joy and theres also been a lot of tough times that feel like anti lgbt in this country and this is determined to make things difficult for us. They seem very angry that we one marriage and its coming out in these horrible religious freedom bills weve seen in mississippi, North Carolina and elsewhere and i would just like to get your take on those. Its distressing, disappointing and also saddening to know, to realize that people in our country just seem incapable of letting go, moving forward and really embracing what it means to be part of we the people and to be an american i think we all expected some backlash to the Marriage Equality ruling. Im just devastated at how vicious it has been and i think of the opponents of Marriage Equality and the lgbt queue of quality in general and i know what it is pretty look at Marriage Equality and changing attitudes and they realize that they are losing the fight when it comes to the lg be part of the lgbt queue community. For whatever reason these people need a group, they need someone to blame, someone to hate and unfortunately they see they are losing ground with the lgbt part so they are targeting the most vulnerable part of our community, our transgender family. Its disgusting. Its frightening that people are using these hateful laws to target the group to try to hold on to the past instead of moving toward the future. Its awful. Youve met a lot of transgender people over the last year, over your your journey. I will say, i always talk about how, i think about what harvey said and he said, out and share your story because thats how we change hearts and minds. When when it comes to the transgender community, i can say honestly a little over a year ago i had no transgender friends, at least none that i knew specifically. Im not alone in that. Im part of the lgbt queue community but i was ignorant about what it means to be transgender. I was ignorant about what their lives are like and i have learned so much over the past year. I have open myself to that. I have learned and met transgender people and they have become my friend and i have become their friend. It has changed my perspective. It changed my attitude. It changed so much about me and im so thankful that i met them. If i hadnt im afraid i would still be suffering under a lot of those misconceptions that many other americans do. It comes down to education and meeting people who are different than you are and understanding that we are no different. We want the same things. We want life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. I feel fortunate that i have been able to grow in that respect. I am thankful for those friends and i will keep fighting for them and talking about their right to live their lives without fearing for their lives. Unfortunately, after this weekend, we are all there. Incredible year. Its incredible what we are seeing with this topsyturvy election and all these issues that are coming out all at the same time, the trends. You and yours hillary a while ago in the fall. How are you feeling about how hillary is handling things now . I couldnt be more proud. As a leader, as a person and as the presumptive nominee for president and i looked at the presumptive nominee on the gop side and all i see is hate. All i see are people who arent like us are less than us and that isnt what im about. That isnt what any of us are about. It frightens me and it saddens me. This is not the america i believe in. Every action that he makes seems to show how limited the scope is. Im sure we could talk about it for another hour. His tweets yesterday were about him. I called it. Hillary would never, Bernie Bernie would never make it about them. Never. Anyhow. Maybe its a good time to open up questions to the audience. I want you to know that cspan is here tonight and they are filming us and there is a boom that will be going around so if you want to ask questions of jim or debbie, just wait and we will bring you the boom. Its a good moment have a question for debbie because theres a little bit more about jim and the book. A lot more. I wanted you to talk about the other plaintiffs that you write about in the story. Sure. Early on i knew that i wanted to tell the whole tory and there were fascinating and compelling plaintiffs and civil right lawyers that we wanted to bring into the story. Their son cooper is the youngest named plaintiff in the case. I think he was two. We wanted to tell their stories too. While jim and john story is woven throughout the book, we wanted to bring in the civil rights attorney from cincinnati who helped lead this case and the other attorneys and plaintiffs because it wasnt just about death certificates. It was also about birth certificate. It was about couples who couldnt get accurate birth certificates for their children. It surprised me that someone on the sidelines who wasnt really into the politics of gay rights, just as a human being and a mother to know that samesex couples went through the trouble of adopting or having children and were denied accurate birth certificates. One parent was listed and the other was a legal stranger. I found that though completely outrageous as a human being and as a mother. I really want to take the time to weave those stories into the book as well. To say that was the best suggestion debbie made, i thought from the start, it was so much bigger than the two of us. Debbie said we have to tell the bigger story. It is other plaintiffs and attorneys in the city of cincinnati. Cincinnati has changed so dramatically over the past of 20 years. And has two of the most compelling plaintiffs in the book are the sitting federal judges. One judge wrote a scathing dissent supporting Marriage Equality and it was a dissent read around the world and she broke protocol to talk to me about why she wrote that opinion it was really a fascinating inside look at what judges think who is going to kick it off . First question. I didnt cover everything. I havent read the book but the roots a decision the other way that wouldve impacted your book. How much of a problem. [inaudible] i think i wasnt thinking the decision would go the other way. I dont think anybody was. I saw this book as a love story in a legal thriller. Its not a history book or a book based on politics. Other books have done it and theyve it very well. This is a book about people. Its a book well love and commitments and what spouses do to protect each other and what parents do to protect their children. Its a Human Interest story aired i was so moved and inspired people i met, not just the plaintiffs but also these scrappy local civil rights lawyers in four states. The lead attorney for john and jim had done this for 30 years but the others hadnt but they pulled together because it was the right thing to do. They came together because its a very conservative circuit. There were more sympathetic judges and they did it because they have clients who have a need. They needed birth certificates and death certificates. Thats what they wanted to do regardless and they did it without pay, not knowing what would happen because that was the right thing to do. I found the lawyers in particular to be so compelling as people and as characters in the book. Another question . This isnt a question as much as it is an observation. I dont know if many of you know, the Southern States and the governor established lgbt pride month in the state of louisiana. That probably would not have happened without the work that you all have done. That louisiana, especially a year ago without other governor that was there, this is a good moment for america. It is and thank you for sharing that. Especially with everything thats going on, we need those Bright Moments when we can say okay, there are still good people and good things so thank you for sharing that. Jim what else have you been doing over the past year . How much have you been in cincinnati, how much have you been traveling and working . When im not traveling i split my time between cincinnati and d. C. I will move to d. C. Fulltime. I think on average over the past two years i spent a total of seven nights a month in either of my two beds. My time has been spent speaking engagements, attending events, doing advocacy work, event speaking, all all of that. Its just cap me very busy. This is the beginning of your book tour. The book comes out tomorrow, love wins, out tomorrow. You are going to be at the smithsonian later this week. On wednesday. Shes good to. Yes she is. [laughter] so jim youve been doing speaking events for the past several months. Debbie, i know know a little bit about what it takes to put a book out and i mean, a year from the Supreme Court decision to publication seems incredible. What was that journey like for you . Thank you for that question. It was a labor of love. It just was. I enjoyed almost every minute of it. We knew we had to publish before the oneyear anniversary or around the time of the oneyear anniversary. I started writing a chapter a week, reporting and traveling and researching every single week for about six months to get this book done. It was a journey but i actually miss the writing process. I honestly love every minute of it, really. From one writer to another, how did you find the discipline every single week to do a chapter. It helps to have a journalist write a book because i am so used to deadlines. I think the scariest part of writing the book was that i had to do it so quickly and i wouldnt want to admit this since my editors on on the audience, but there were times when i didnt know where the next chapter was going to go or if i had all of the material for the next chapter, but honestly when you are working with a story like this, it in some ways tells itself. It just does. The people in this book, jim and john and joe and rob and other characters and probably one of the main characters in the book. Be on a personal bases, their story moved be like millions of other people. I would be interesting hearing your reactions to particulary Justice Scalia and the other justice who were clearly in opposition to the decision that was ultimately rendered. For me it comes down to disappointment and this was throughout the sixth circumstan circuit and Supreme Court. The Common Threads were lets wait and see. The fact that seemed to be a common theme lets just wait and see what happens because attitudes are changing. Courts exist to protect our rights. We should not have to wait a year, a decade, century for those rights to be upheld and recognized. The other thing was the whole concept of well, shouldnt the people be able to vote on this. Why are we allowing a court to do this. Shouldnt it be done state by state or through the legislative process and i will always go back and remember one of the things said in the very first hearing andt i am paraphrasing but the surest way to deny a majority their rights is to allow the majority to vote on it. For me it seemed counter intuitive and counter to the purpose of the role of our court system for those justices to say say. I think that is yeah, i think for me i think what was so brilliant about this case looking outside in is that the lawyers were able to identify such a tangible, technical problem these families were struggling with. Marriage equality, i get it. Samesex marriage. They were married in one place but it didnt translate across state lines. How is that possible. There are so many problems i find and as a journalist with children growing up in bad schools and troubled families and we are denying these couples basic rights and that is what spoke to me. The constitution does trump the democrating process and that was the point of the case. Just the overreliance on changing to change the definition of a word that existed for many years and one of the justice said he already changed the definition of marriage. Woman are no longer the property of their husband. No one person, no one group, no one tradition owns the definition of marriage. It is a civil liberty and right and that to me was just a very pointment argument. Pointless. What is next for you guys . I will say the best thing coming from this is the realization that i have to be involved in something that is bigger and more important than i am. You know, john and i were not activist. We signed checks. That was our brand of activism. To find ourselves in this spot where we had the ability to say this is what matters and this is what we stand for and knowing that has had such an impact on the nation and the rest of the world i have to be part of things like that going forward. So for me, what comes next is continuing to be an advocatie ad activist, to speak up for the people who can not speak up or are afraid to speak up and to fight for everyone in our country who feels denied their basic work as a person. That fight continues. It is for every single american until week wake up, grow up as kids feeling safe, loved for who we have without fear and apology we have work to do. I will be part of that as long as i need to be. That has been the best outcome and personal growth i could have asked for. [applause] i did have one more question if no one else has one to ask. There is going to be a movie. Tell us about that a little. Your book has been auctioned. Yeah, even before the book was written it was auctioned. A leap of faith on part of the 21st century fox and temple hill producti production. The screen play is being written by a prominent screenwriter in hollywood and fingers crossed things keep moving forward. Wonderful. Yeah, it is very exciting. Any last questions . Who would you like to play you in a movie . I get this question all of the time. It is an odd thing to think about. It is a really weird concept to ponder. Most importantly, i wanted to be an actors who are the best actors possible and bringing life to our characters and are committed to doing the best job possible is what matters to me. Now, if i am going to be completely shallow, because this is my opportunity to have someone portray me on the big screen of course i want to be hot. So matt bomer. I would not turn that down. Perfect choice. Done. Thank you all for being here tonight. [applause] i would like to say one more thing. Love wins is the title of our book and that concept that love wins there has never been a more important time for our community or nation to cling to that and believe in that. Love wins. Love will also win over hate. For me, being here and talking about the story it is an incredible emotional thing to be doing with what is happening in our country. I just ask you to think about that. Think about this book and remember love does win. That is the most important thing, the most important story and the most important concept. If we cannot teach that to neighbors, friends, and strangers by the way we behave and our actions and what we say then we have lost as a country. Love wins. Take it to heart and live it. Thank you. [applause] i believe the bar is still open and in closing please remember the traditional gift for a First Anniversary is paper. And a great way to celebrate the First Anniversary of the freedom to marry would be to take home a signed copy of love wins right over there. Thanks. [applause] [inaudible conversation] booktv recently visited capitol hill to ask members of congress what they are reading this summer i have a great reading list for the summer. One of the things i am starting with is the constitution. So many of my constituents are reading through the constitution and the declaration with their kids this summer so we are going to have fun with that and do things working toward Constitution Day in the fall. I think that is exciting that so many families are going back and looking at those First Principles and founding documents. In tennessee seven that is at the top of had list. Some other things, too. There is a daniels book i want to read. Bringing out the best in people is the title. I think every once in a while it is like, you know, to get a new perspective on how you lead a team i always say you need people in managed assets. I have always been a big fan of the books with the leadership principles. I read a review or two of this and i think that is going to be a good one to read and kind of motivational. That is on there. There is an interesting book, too, that is called fluke. It looks like mathematics and signs behind odd occurrences and i want to read fluke. I think it so interesting how sometimes something just seems to happen. Booktv wants to know what you reading this summer. Tweet us the answer at booktv or post it on our facebook page. Facebook. Com booktv. Here is a look at books being published this week. Gary burn talks about working in the Clinton White house in crisis of character. Former u. S. Assistance secretary of defense for International Security affairs derrick sholay defends the Obamas Administration Foreign Policy in the long game. In wake up america, eric bowling outlines nine characteristics that he believes helped make America Great and argues that the country has lost its way. Galger looks at the history of the u. S. Postalal system in how the post office created america. In chaos monkeys, Antonio Martinez talks about entrreneurship in silicone valley. And tom rid recounts the history of cyber war in rise of the machi machines. Look for these titles in bookstores this coming week and watch for the authors in the near future on booktv