Marching With Pride

My dad did not come out until I was in college. I can only imagine the toll it took on him to keep a secret for 50 years. Now he's out in the open and married to a wonderful man.

We went to the Pride Parade together three years ago, and it was an amazing experience. That was his first, and he was so happy. It meant a lot to him to be marching with me and to see that I work for a company where our CEO and hundreds and hundreds of employees and families come to the parade.

This year, my wife and three boys will come with me because I want to share it with them. There's such a high level of happiness there. It's a wonderful event.

Mihal Emberton, MD, MPH, Adult and Family Medicine

My wife, Raelyn Ruppel, was the first woman I had ever dated, and within weeks I knew this was the person I needed to spend the rest of my life with. We got our marriage license in 2008, on the first day you could legally marry a same-sex partner in California. It was also the day Raelyn drove our belongings across the country to Ohio, where I was to start my residency.

We suffered a lot of discrimination in Ohio. The residency program said they would provide health care coverage for Raelyn, but it was a six-week battle to get her covered. She wouldn't hold my hand when we were in public because she was afraid it might spark violence.

When I started with Kaiser Permanente four years ago, my wife had health coverage from day one. When we went through prenatal care and had our baby, we were treated as a family, and that was really important to us. It's wonderful to be a part of an organization that's so outwardly supportive of my family, and about how far we've come as a society.