Revisiting NPH & David Burtka's Landmark Wedding

It's a surreal feeling to know that you are living through a moment that will go down in the history books. Friday, June 26, 2015, is one such moment. SCOTUS' decision to overturn the ban on same-sex marriage is a phenomenal step for the LGBT community and for America in general. In a 2014 interview on The View, Rosie O'Donnell interviewed a newly-married Neil Patrick Harris and marveled at the beauty of being able to speak freely about their same-sex relationships. O'Donnell said to NPH, "Who would have thought when we were kids that we would be on a TV show, as gay people, talking about our spouses and children ... It's come a long way, right?"

Marriage equality has been such a long time coming and, at long last, the iconic figures and advocates of same-sex marriage can finally breathe a sigh of relief and revel in the progress they helped facilitate. NPH has been a prominent advocate of marriage equality for some time now, as well as a key figure in the push for the furthering of LGBT rights in general.

If the SCOTUS decision is any indication, things have indeed come a long way. The fight for the marriage equality has been arduous one, helped along by figures like Neil Patrick Harris who made the choice to share details of their intimate relationships.

Neil Patrick Harris publicly came out to People magazine in 2006. NPH stated:

I am happy to dispel any rumors or misconceptions and am quite proud to say that I am a very content gay man living my life to the fullest and feel most fortunate to be working with wonderful people in the business I love.

In the years since, Neil Patrick Harris has made no secret of his love life, especially concerning his loving marriage to David Burtka. Neil Patrick Harris and David Burtka were wed in September 2014 and it seems only fitting on this historic day to take a fond look back at this landmark marriage.

As Neil Patrick Harris told Out magazine in January 2012, he first met David Burtka through a friend and NPH was immediately attracted to the "brooding, James Dean-type guy in a leather jacket" who was staring back at him. After their original meeting, as Burtka told Vulture in 2010, Neil Patrick Harris and David Burtka ran into each other in New York City on 9th Avenue between 44th and 45th street and the rest, as they say, is actual LGBT history.

Burtka would later propose to NPH on that very street corner after almost a decade of dating. Neil Patrick Harris also got down on one knee in 2008, proving that anyone can (and should) have the experience of receiving a proposal from the one you love.

After so many years together, Harris and Burtka were married on September 16, 2014, in a beautiful wedding in Perugia, Italy which featured a surprise performance by Elton John (no big deal). In a 2014 appearance on The View, NPH said that he and Burtka decided to get married not to make a statement to the public to make a statement to their children. Harris told Rosie O'Donnell and Whoopi Goldberg:

... [W]e really were not trying to do it to elicit any reaction from anyone. We just had been together for over ten years and I think when our kids got to the age where they were having reasonable conversations ... where they're asking lots of 'why' questions ... then it seemed like to be able to have a real clear-cut explanation of who their daddy .... is great. That he's my husbands... it's easier than partner or boyfriend.

Although their marriage was not intended to make a statement, it certainly did. Neil Patrick Harris and David Burtka have become a prime example of a proud, loving, same-sex married couple who prove that love is love no matter the packaging it arrives in.

In 2014, love won for Neil Patrick Harris and David Burtka and it is such a pleasure to know that, thanks to SCOTUS, love will continue to win for same-sex couples across the United States from this day forward.