Photo: From Bonnie Clement’s Facebook page, showing George HW Bush signing Bonnie and Helen Thorgalsen’s wedding licence.
George HW Bush was a witness to the Sept 21 marriage of Bonnie Clement and Helen Thorgalsen, owners of HB Provisions, a general store in Kennebunk, Maine.
A representative for Bush and his wife, Barbara Bush, confirmed to The Washington Post that the couple “were private citizens attending a private ceremony for two friends.”
“They have always been not only supportive of us but including us in many of their social events when they are here in Kennebunkport,” Clement told BuzzFeed in an interview from her honeymoon in London. “So it was very natural and normal for them to be invited and to attend.”
The couple, who have been together for 12 years, asked Bush to sign as a witness to the marriage because “it would just acknowledge it being real,” Clement said. “Our minister Nancy Sosa said during our ceremony, ‘God doesn’t make a love that is wrong.’ And this day proved to be so in so many ways.”
Marriage equality became legal in the state of Maine in December 2012.