On Friday, Jack Evans, 85, and George Harris, 82, became the first same-sex couple to wed in Dallas County, Texas. According
to NBC 5 News, the octogenarians were the first of 170 same-sex couples to be married in Dallas County on Friday. Their
nuptials came just hours after the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark decision to legalize gay marriage nationwide. Evans and
Harris have been together for more than 54 years.

“You would have been blown away by the crowd there, there must have been 450 people there, people waiting to get married,
reporters. It was amazing. Just amazing,” Evans told People magazine about the unforgettable moment. “Ten years ago
[marriage equality] was not within the realm of possibility.”

Evans and Harris have reportedly spent decades fighting for gay rights and marriage equality, founding both the North Texas
GLBT Chamber of Commerce and The Dallas Way, a project aimed at preserving and documenting the history of the gay,
lesbian, bisexual and transgender community in the city.

“Our real focus has been our legacy for the community, that our whole lives have been trying to improve, to encourage the
young people to make a difference,” Harris told D Magazine last year. “They think they can walk down Cedar Springs holding
hands, and it’s just automatically come to that, but there was a lot of struggle to get there.”

Prior to the Supreme Court’s ruling last week, Texas had been one of 13 states where gay marriage was banned. However, the
battle is still not over. On Sunday, the state’s attorney general Ken Paxton (R) announced that county clerks in Texas will still
be able to refuse marriage licenses to same-sex couples based on religious objections.

(Via tvchaska)