Former PA State Rep Brian Sims, Alex Drakos Marry Ahead of Trump's Inauguration

Out former PA State Rep. Brian Sims and his partner, Alex Drakos, had plans to marry in September of this year. Then Donald Trump was elected, the threat loomed of marriage equality and other rights being stripped away as outlined in Project 2025, and they sped up their schedule.

The couple didn't even wait for the election before they started sketching out contingencies for a second Trump term, Out Magazine relayed.

"The day after the debate that went so disastrously for Biden, the two of us sat down and had a really serious discussion around what we were gonna do if Trump won and what it would look like," Drakos told the publication, adding that they wondered, in the event of a Trump win, "Would we be worried that our marriage would no longer be possible on the timeline that we thought it would be?"

The couple had previously thought they had a luxury of time. Sims proposed to Drakos in 2023.

But with Trump's victory in November, the need to formalize their commitment suddenly took on more urgency.

"In 2012, Sims made history as the first openly LGBTQ+ person elected to the Pennsylvania General Assembly," Insitinct Magazine backgrounded. "Both Sims and Drakos are proud LGBTQ+ rights activists. So, it's safe to assume that it wasn't much of a surprise they understood what was at stake if they didn't tie the knot before the upcoming inauguration that is going to happen just a few weeks away."

With little time to lose, Sims and Drakos accelerated their schedule considerably.

"Officiated by Julian Cyr, an out Massachusetts state senator and friend, the pair wed December 21 in a small ceremony in the Massachusetts State House alongside their parents as witnesses," Out recounted.

Drakos took to Instagram with news of the nuptials, explaining, "With marriage equality and LGBTQ+ rights under attack, being legally married before the inauguration felt like the safest choice for us."

The couple had intended to host "a full wedding," Drakos noted in the post, and despite the intimate nature of the ceremony itself they still have plans for a "big celebration with friends and family," he said.

Still, Drakos made a point of underscoring the necessity of the change of plans.

"Everyone that knows me knows that I love a silver lining and that I'm not one for confrontation," Drakos posted, "but let's be clear: we wouldn't have felt the urgency to do this now if we weren't queer or facing this political climate."

"So, while we welcome your congratulations," Sims' new husband added, "we also challenge everyone to ensure your actions match those words of support."

Sims and Drakos are far from alone in feeling the need to act while they can to formalize their committed relationship. Same-sex couples across the country are taking similar steps, fearing that to delay will be to lose their chance forever.

One major source of worry is Project 2025 – a 900+ page blueprint from conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation that outlines plans to impose drastic changes to American government and society. Among its many other proposed attacks on individual rights and liberties, the massive document calls for marriage equality to be eliminated and family rights for queer couples to be restricted.

Two justices on the conservative-heavy Supreme Court, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, have indicated an eagerness for the court to revisit the issue of marriage equality, less than 10 years after a Supreme Court finding cleared the way for full marriage equality nationwide.

Though President Biden signed the "Respect for Marriage Act" into law in 2022 as a means of shoring up marriage rights in the event the Supreme Court yanks those rights away – as the court did when it overturned its own 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling, which legalized abortion – marriage equality as it exists now is not entirely protected from legal erosion.