History

WITH THIS RING is a bittersweet venture, born out of a swirl of tragedy and celebration:

As America’s diversity conversation reaches the highest office in the land, there has never been a more perfect time to demonstrate our nation’s commitment to equality and freedom.

Yet just a few years ago, a close friend of Jonathon Feit (WITH THIS RING's chief editor-publisher) found his family life unsympathetically shredded on an immigration technicality.  Had this friend been allowed to marry his partner with full legal parity, two “great Americans”—a term used by Senator John McCain when we interviewed him in 2005—would still be living in this country and contributing to its limitless potential for human rights leadership.    

To Jonathon, the goal of equalizing marriage rights throughout the United States became a labor of passion—one that has led beyond the pages of his company's magazines to prolific turns blogging on diversity for the trade newspaper Advertising Age and elsewhere. Such mission-drive was in-line with the greatest goals of CITIZEN CULTURE, the company's acclaimed Young Professionals-focused magazine that highlighted divergent opinions through balanced, bi-partisan coverage of even highly controversial issues.

WITH THIS RING, however, began life as a publication as a concept introduced by three Boston University students—Stacy Chamberlain, Rowena Yow, and Tia Albright—in the Spring of 2006, when they were enrolled in Jonathon's new media-focused publishing course (a first for B.U.'s College of Communication). Students in the course were to conceive a hot new media product—website, magazine, book, etc.; among the ideas of greatest potential was a "non-traditional weddings magazine."

Around the same time, CITIZEN CULTURE held the first-ever magazine concept competition [advertisement and judge list] in Issue #9, opening its pages to showcase rising talent and recruiting several of the publishing and advertising industries' top experts as judges. The three Boston University students entered the contest, among several compelling teams nationwide. Following deliberation of a too-close-to-call race, the "non-traditional weddings magazine"—then called "I Do"—emerged victorious.

The prize was twenty pages in CITIZEN CULTURE to prototype the new media concept, but WITH THIS RING seemed so novel and necessary that Feit Publishing Ventures' management team decided to propose a partnership with the winners instead. They were offered a chance to join our company and actualize their vision; together we built a model for this launch this revolutionary new magazine.

You can download the prototype for free here.

Mission

WITH THIS RING is also a romantic venture—unequivocal, vocal, and optimistic.

Wedding magazines are one of the few bright spots in the modern print magazine industry. Yet there exists only one other magazine that caters to same-sex weddings, and it does so exclusively, which goes a long way toward explaining why it has never gained significant traction—the Marriage Equality movement is about placing "Every Kind of Wedding" on a common footing, not setting one class of people apart.

WITH THIS RING, therefore, blends a sweetly sentimental celebration of love with steady hope that someday every man and woman will share the right and privilege to legally bind him- or her-self to the one that he or she loves...no matter the race, religion, or gender of that individual.

We cover same-sex, interracial, interfaith, and destination weddings, expectant weddings (i.e. pregnant brides), group weddings, theme weddings that highlight the tastes and twists that make the happy couple unique among all others—and of course, the more traditional "white weddings" that are the subject of hundreds of local and national glossy publications.

Most importantly, WITH THIS RING is a community magazine—the first of its kind, a hybrid, dedicated to reflecting the voices of its eminently diverse constituency. TRUE Equality is about an eradication of arbitrary, unimportant distrinctions in exchange for an embrace of the differences that enable us to learn from one another. Our readers and contributors give us place.

As such, we need to hear from you, and need your help to push the movement forward— beyond California, beyond Vermont, beyond controversy.

Soon, weddings won't be "gay," "straight," "traditional" or "mixed"...
They'll just be beautiful.

Submit YOUR story of love, commitment, and perseverance.

WITH THIS RING Magazine is a COMMUNITY magazine, not your typical publication compiled by faceless editors in far-of offices. This means we need your voice, and your help to grow.

Contact the editor for details on contributing your words and images, getting involved with the magazine's development efforts, and generally helping ensure that we're here to ensure that love, commitment, and family are celebrated—not segregated.