JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – At the Rainbow Wedding Chapel in downtown Jacksonville, everyone is welcome.
“I marry everyone, and I love doing it,” said Selecia Young-Jones.
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Young-Jones is the owner and officiant. To her, each wedding is as special as the last.
“You start seeing those little eyes start to water, and you know that this moment is so important to them,” she said.
News4JAX spoke to several newly-married couples at the Rainbow Wedding Chapel on Valentine’s Day.
“It’s just the best day of my life,” said bride Brianna Cheley.
Some of the people News4JAX spoke to on Valentine’s Day said they were surprised to learn the courthouse didn’t perform weddings, that’s how they ended up at the Rainbow Wedding Chapel.
“So they informed us, ‘okay, you can go across the street and actually go there,’” Cheley said. “I’m glad we chose this place.”
The courthouse stopped performing weddings 2015 after Florida’s ban on gay marriage was ruled unconstitutional. The clerk of court at the time said to prevent any discrimination, the courthouse would not perform any weddings at all. The office continues to issue marriage licenses to all couples, but in 2015, the clerk of court told News4JAX employees in his office were not required by Florida Statute to perform ceremonies.
“And that decision rang out through a lot of the South,” Young-Jones said. “It’s OK by me. I mean, I’m gonna find a way around it. I always have.”
She said it’s important to her.
“I had to go to Maryland to get married,” she said. “That was in 2014...it was before marriage equality. And I was not gonna sit here and...let them tell me you can’t get married. You can get on a train, I can go get married, someplace else.”
She says love finds a way, and now, it is something she has the privilege to see firsthand, over and over.
“It doesn’t matter rich or poor, Black or white, young or old, straight or gay. You know, you see love as love. And believe me, it really is,” she said.
A new clerk of court in Duval County has taken over since the decision was made to not perform weddings at the courthouse. News4JAX reached out about the decision to continue the policy of performing no weddings, but they did not immediately respond.