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Azle Malinao-Alvarez Emerald
Shasta Willson (left) and JuLeah Huckstep are planning a Sept. 9 wedding ceremony at the Campbell Se
nior Citizen Center on the Willamette River. The University students are shown here at one of their favorite
campus locations. The women met four years ago at RideAble, a non-profit equestrian organization.
Wedding goes beyond
traditional coupling
■ A local lesbian couple shares
their plans for a Septemeber
wedding celebration
By jack Clifford
Oregon Daily Emerald
Shasta Willson and JuLeah Huckstep
don’t want to be perceived as trailblazers.
The two University students also aren’t rab
ble rousers.
And please, don’t call the two women
“spunky gals” — especially the highly ac
tiye Huckstep, who gets around campus
and town using a wheelchair.
No, these two women are just another
couple in love, going crazy over the plan
ning for that big day, their Sept. 9 wedding.
“We’re not doing this for a tax break or to
gain residency status,” Willson says. “We’re
doing it because we want to very visibly
make this commitment to each other in
front of friends and family to express to
them that this relationship is different than
all of the other ones we’ve been in.
“Still, the next morning we’re going to
wake up, roll over, look at each other and
go, ‘You’re my wife!”’
Of course, Willson, 29, and Huckstep, 31,
won’t be joined in legal matrimony. Al
though the Hawaiian and Vermont state
governments have teased the gay and les
bian community with talk of legalizing mar
riage between two people of the same sex,
the battle will only truly be won on the fed
eral level.
“We fully intend to have a second wed
ding when it becomes legal, and we believe
it will become legal in our lifetime,” Huck
step says.
Until that day arrives, there’s more press
ing work to be done. Such as paring down a
300-name guest list to 150 people, picking
out invitations, finding a photographer who
is comfortable being involved with a lesbian
wedding and every other planning task in
volved in the process.
In order to maintain a reasonable budget
— “Martha Stewart has this plan on how to
pull off a simple wedding for $100,000 or
less; that’s not us,” Huckstep says with a
smile — the pair is taking a do-it-them
selves approach. They’ll grow their own
bridal flowers, cook their own food for the
reception and are gleaning tips from just
about every bride’s magazine available.
They have chosen the Campbell Senior
Center on the Willamette River as the cere
mony site, and a rabbi from Temple Beth Is
rael will perform the post-sundown Satur
day service, avoiding conflict with Shabbat,
the Jewish Sabbath.
Candlelight is an important component
of that day, so Willson and Huckstep have
been busy designing their own.
“When we watch ‘The X-Files’ Sunday
nights, we sit there with a pile of candles
and dried flower petals, and we assemble
candles,” Willson says. “This whole
process kind of permeates our lives.”
In some ways, both women say, this wed
ding seemed inevitable from the time they
first met almost four years ago,
Huckstep, a senior in the Family and
Community Services program, is a volun
teer coordinator for Ride Able, a non-profit
equestrian organization designed to help
keep folks with disabilities in the saddle.
Until recently, Willson, who is nearing com
pletion of her master’s degree in computer
information science, volunteered a lot of
her time at the stable, grooming and exer
cising the horses.
An after-work date 18 months ago ce
mented the simmering love both women
felt toward each other.
“For a long time, I thought that JuLeah
was my newest best friend, and I thought
that was what this relationship was going to
be,” Willson says. “Then one day it oc
curred to me that I wanted to spend the rest
of my life with her. ”
So, the two designed their own engage
ment rings, then drove to Mount Shasta in
California last March for a preplanned pro
posal ritual. They officially announced
their marital intentions to family members
this past Christmas.
Both families have been supportive of the
decision, and the couple has battled any ob
stacles society has thrown in front of them
with an “Oh well” attitude. Not long ago,
they point out, mixed race and mixed reli
gious faith marriages were prohibited, so
they know certain individuals will always
be prone to narrow-mindedness.
“There are people who harbor prejudices
and stereotypes, and I don’t think it would
matter much who we are or what we are, we
would piss off somebody,” Huckstep says.
Huckstep says her official diagnosis after
a car accident five years ago was “multiple
broken stuff,” so her being in a wheelchair
brings another complication to the relation
ship.
Neither woman sees this aspect as a big
problem, however.
“JuLeah could have grown up in another
country and speak another language, then
we’d have a different set of issues to deal
with,” Willson says. “Every couple has
something like that that they have to figure
out.”
Creating a family environment with Will
son’s son Slate, who’s almost six years old,
and party plans are the focal points for now.
These do-it-yourself types have less than
eight months to go before they can finally
relax and maybe even enjoy a honeymoon
on the Oregon Coast, riding horses and or
dering room service.
“Shasta is very creative, very artistic, and
we’re going to rely on that heavily to get us
through this,” Huckstep says.
“And JuLeah is very good at actually get
ting things done, where I tend to fall down a
little,” Willson adds. “We make a good
team.”