On February 23, 2007, Elena Cardona and Liz Quinones were one of the first couples in New Jersey to enter into a legally recognized civil union. They were also the first couple ever to be featured on the cover of RainbowWeddingNetwork Magazine! 2009 finds Elena, Liz and their family anticipating another exciting milestone... Congratulations, Quinones Family! (Read the full interview -with all the wonderful updates- upcoming in the Summer issue of RWN Magazine!)
RWN Magazine (RWN) - Tell us a little bit about your relationship as it is today, now that you two have journeyed together through friendship, romance, a historic civil union celebration, life as newlyweds... and now look toward your future. Elena (EQ) - Since we had the ceremony for our Civil Union, life has just been wonderful. You never really realize how much one day (meaning our Wedding Day) really does mean to you until you have finally done it.
I will never forget how Liz used to tell me when we were just friends that she would never get married, but if you ask her that same question today her answer would be that she would do it over and over again if we could. It meant that much. Since the Civil Union I have changed my last name from Cardona to Quinones so we now have the same last name, we have combined both our medical insurance policies and auto insurance. We can now file our Surrounded by friends & family, Elena & Liz celebrate their civil New Jersey State Taxes together union ceremony in February 2007. One of the first couples in but not our Federal because our New Jersey to commit to each other under the then-newlyenacted civil union legislation, Elena & Liz planned their Civil Union has no holding federally. celebration in just six weeks. Photo: Lauren Guiliano of Ultrax We still have to explain what our Disc Jockeys, Photography & Videography Civil Union means to many people, because in New Jersey we do not have the EQ - The best way to describe our process title of Marriage yet. But we look at each of becoming pregnant is a long, scary roller dialogue as an extra opportunity to educate coaster, which we almost jumped off of people about the struggles that same-sex plenty of times! We are so happy that we couples have endured -and still do- in our had the courage to hold on. efforts for complete equality for all. It wasn’t long after our Wedding -actually March of 2007, to be exact- that we started talking and thinking about adding a little someone to our family. I have biological children of my own, who we are raising together and Liz has been in their lives for the last 14 years. But we had never shared the experience from the beginning & Liz has no children of her own. So we both decided that it would be the perfect completion to our family. So our journey began. RWN - What metaphor would you use to describe the process of becoming pregnant? What were some of the high & low points of the journey to your successful conception?
We don’t think that there was anything that could have prepared us for what was ahead. We decided to take Liz’s egg with a donor sperm and have me (Elena) carry the baby. This process sounds a lot easier then it really is. We both had to take shots in our stomachs everyday for about two weeks to prepare our bodies for the process. We were extremely blessed to become pregnant after just two attempts. But our happiness was cut short when, due to the stress of losing my only brother at just 27 years old, we also lost the pregnancy. We decided it would be best to take a break for a couple of months before trying again. We decided to switch doctors and start fresh. To make a really long and tumultuous ●● cont’d
Vol. 4 Issue 1 Spring 2009 33