Homeless men don't wait for courts to commit to each other
By Kevin Parrish
Record Staff Writer
December 15, 2012 12:00 AM

http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20121215/A_NEWS/212150318


Ryan Kubota and Richard Beckman stand Thursday in front of the Pride Center in Stockton, where they will celebrate their relationship today with the 14-month-old center's first commitment ceremony.
MICHAEL McCOLLUM/The Record

STOCKTON - Ryan Kubota and Richard Beckman don't have much, but they have each other.

The two homeless men, who have lived on the streets of Stockton for two months, are gay. And they're celebrating their relationship today with a commitment ceremony at the Pride Center on Sutter Street.

It's the first such ceremony at the 14-month-old downtown center, and it will be officiated by the Rev. Elena Kelly, founder of the Stockton Transgender Alliance.

"It's similar to a marriage ceremony," Kelly said. "I gave them a list of vows, and they picked one." The ceremony is expected to last one hour. "I'm honored to perform it," Kelly said. "They're just a sweet couple, wonderful to watch."

This story gives me great joy.

From time to time, I visit my daughter/son at UoP in Stockton. For all the bad press Stockton gets because of its crime rate, I actually feel safer in the part of Stockton that I've visited than in most of the parts of San Francisco that I visit.