On Thanksgiving Day 2009, Valerie Smith and Nathalie Sowers, a couple for three years, traveled from their home in Honolulu to marry in Victoria, Canada.

Nathalie, a graduate of Maryknoll High School, has lived in Hawaii since age 7 when she arrived from Vietnam with her family. Both of their mothers came to the U.S. from Saigon and both daughters are fluent in Vietnamese.

Valerie's political consciousness was raised in her years in Santa Cruz and San Francisco, California, where she worked on domestic partnership rights and other civil rights issues.

Listening to a Hawaii Public Radio debate on marriage equality in the spring of 2009 prompted Valerie to become engaged in the struggle to pass civil unions. She organized door-knocking in Manoa to plead her case for equality to the people to hopefully influence legislators.

Says Valerie, "I would have felt guilty about not being involved in this struggle for equality." •