MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 9: Minneapolis Mayor Rybak to Invite Same-Sex Wisconsin Couples to Marry in Minneapolis

WHAT: The Mayor of Minneapolis, R.T. Rybak, will unveil a new ad campaign that will run in Madison-area publications that invites same-sex couples from Madison and across Wisconsin to travel to Minneapolis to get legally married. Madison Mayor Paul Soglin will join Mayor Rybak to argue that this campaign points to the need to enact marriage equality in Wisconsin.

Until it is legal for same-sex couples to marry in Wisconsin, Mayor Rybak will be actively inviting gay and lesbian Wisconsinites to make the short trip to Minneapolis to marry, where marriage equality has been in effect since August 1. Minneapolis, City by Nature, is a supportive, welcoming city with free LGBT wedding-planning services and hundreds of friendly vendors who are waiting to help gay and lesbian Wisconsin couples put together the wedding of their dreams.

WHEN: Monday, September 9, 2013, 2:00 p.m.

WHERE: CityCounty Building, front steps

210 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.

Madison, WI 53703

WHO: Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak

Madison Mayor Paul Soglin

Representatives of Fair Wisconsin

MORE: Beginning at the stroke of midnight on August 1 and until almost 7:00 a.m. that morning, Mayor Rybak personally performed 46 same-sex weddings in the Rotunda of Minneapolis City Hall, an event that was two months in the planning. Photo essays of that extensively-covered historic night are here and here, with background on how it came to be here. Two weeks later, Mayor Rybak officiated at the wedding of Minneapolis Police Chief Janeé Harteau and her wife.

Mayor Rybak is a long-standing advocate for the freedom for all couples to marry and was a leader in the fight to enact marriage equality in Minnesota. He strongly encourages Wisconsin to reverse course and pass the freedom to marry for all couples but until that happens, he wants same-sex Madison and Wisconsin couples to marry in Minneapolis.

In just one month since same-sex marriage became legal in Minnesota, 1,640 same-sex Minnesota couples have applied for wedding licenses.

The ad campaign is in partnership with Meet Minneapolis, Convention & Visitors Association.

Mayor R.T. Rybak, who was overwhelmingly elected to three terms as mayor of Minneapolis, is currently completing his 12^th year in office and is not running for reelection in 2013.

###