WATCH ABOVE: Hillary Clinton made it official she’s running for President of the United States, in 2016, with a video released on her YouTube channel.
Jared Milrad and Nathan Johnson are getting married this summer, before their friends, family and maybe presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
Johnson and Milrad appeared together in Clinton’s official video announcement of her second White House bid — laying to rest the worst-kept secret in U.S. politics.
A former Secretary of State, former senator and former First Lady, 67-year-old Clinton unveiled a campaign that will reach out to “everyday Americans,” including same-sex couples. Johnson and Mirad appear about 50 seconds into the 2-minute and 16-second video.
“I’m getting married this summer to someone I really care about,” Milrad says as he’s seen in the video walking hand-in-hand with Johnson and their dog, Cooper, near their Chicago apartment.
READ MORE: Clinton goes on road trip after announcing presidential campaign
“We were really excited to see that our interview was featured in the campaign announcement,” Milrad said in an interview with the Washington Blade. “It was particularly moving to see Secretary Clinton feature a gay couple engaged to be legally married, the first of any major presidential candidate.”
“To us, this decision demonstrates Secretary Clinton’s commitment to LGBT equality and the type of inclusive leader she would be as president,” 31-year-old Milrad told the Washington Blade.
Milrad, a lawyer and the founder of the non-profit organization Civil Legal Corps, will marry 30-year-old Johnson, a health care consultant, on July 19.
They have invited Clinton to attend their nuptials.
“No formal response yet, but I know she’s pretty busy,” Milrad told ABC News in a phone interview. “We’ll give her a couple days.”
He said it was only fitting as she invited them to be a part of “her big day.”
READ MORE: 5 facts about 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton
The couple got cast in the video without knowing it would wind up being a part of the launch of her campaign. They found out they were in it when everyone else did.
“Through family and friends who let us know they saw us on TV and on YouTube. We were actually out shopping,” Milrad said.
Clinton’s support for same-sex marriage is a bit of an about-face from her stance during her 2008 run for office, when she lost the Democratic nomination to President Barack Obama.
READ MORE: Obama looks to end LGBTQ ‘conversion therapy’, still legal in Canada
At that time, she publicly opposed same-sex marriage, instead backing civil unions.
It wasn’t until 2013 that she came out in support of marriage equality.
She made that declaration, as she did her 2008 and 2016 campaign announcements, on video.
“I believe America is at its best when we champion the freedom and dignity of every human being,” she said in a video for the Human Rights Campaign.
“LGBT Americans are our colleagues, our teachers, our soldiers, our friends, our loved ones. And they are full and equal citizens and they deserve the rights of citizenship. That includes marriage.”
Clinton, in the days leading up to her official campaign launch, criticized the state of Indiana for a religious freedom law that would allow businesses to deny services to LGBT people.
She was scheduled to drive through Indiana en route from her home in New York state to her first campaign stop in Iowa, where she is set to arrive on Tuesday.
Milrad and Johnson, who didn’t enter into a relationship until after Obama was elected in 2008, told the Washington Blade they supported different candidates during that year’s Democratic primaries: Milrad supported Obama throughout while Johnson initially favoured Clinton.
While they’re both supporting Clinton now and are happy about her stance on marriage equality, Milrad told the Blade he would like to see presidential hopefuls speak out on the upcoming Supreme Court hearing on same-sex marriage.
So far, 37 states have legalized same-sex marriage, following legal challenges against state bans. The Supreme Court will rule in June on a case that could pave the way to allow gay and lesbian couples to marry nationwide.
Comments