Wedding bells will ring next year for Bethlehem residents Adrian Shanker and Brandon Pariser.
The couple got engaged Oct. 20 and is planning a 2013 wedding.
Shanker, 25, is the board president of Equality Pennsylvania, and Pariser, 26, is a nurse.
Both men are originally from Westchester County, N.Y.
The pair met in April 2009 at a Pennsylvania Diversity Network fundraiser at Rainbow Mountain in East Stroudsburg.
“I was staffing the fundraiser and when I met him, I knew he cared about the LGBT community, which was important. I knew he cared about the same issues I did,” Shanker said.
Their relationship has been helped by healthy doses of “compromise and patience,” Pariser said.
Shanker added it’s also been helpful to have “a willingness to take a deep breath and think about what the other person’s needs are.”
Their relationship reached its next stage Oct. 20, when Shanker popped the question amid little fanfare.
“In my true form as one of the least romantic people on the planet, we were on the couch, and I said to Brandon, ‘Hey, how about we get married,’” Shanker said.
Pariser didn’t need a grand gesture, however.
“I think we were both ready to take the next step,” he said.
The couple plans to legally wed in a state where it’s legal next year and hold a Jewish wedding ceremony in Pennsylvania.
Shanker said he and Pariser see their pending nuptials as having significance beyond the personal realm.
“It’s important that we make that public statement that says that our relationship and our love for each other should have the same respect from society that is given to our friends who are not members of the LGBT community,” he said. “Certainly, there’s no difference in the way we love each other whether we’re married legally or not, but there’s a difference in the way that our communities and society see us.”
The couple also plans to apply for a marriage license in Northampton County and will display their rejection letter next to their legal marriage certificate at the local wedding ceremony.