White House LGBT Pride Reception Ends With Marriage Proposal

Scout, a transgender man who goes by one name, proposed to his partner, Liz Margolies, Friday at the White House reception for LGBT Pride Month.

The proposal happened in the late afternoon after President Obama addressed around 500 attendees. Scout, the director of the Network for LGBT Health Equity at the Fenway Institute, dropped to one knee in Cross Hall on the first floor of the White House as guests mingled and the U.S. Marine Band played.

Margolies, the executive director of the National LGBT Cancer Network, appears hesitant at first in a video of the proposal. She later explained to The Huffington Post that she has long been opposed to the institution of marriage.

Scout, meanwhile, said that the few seconds of her deliberation felt like “about 19 years” had passed. Margoiles finally accepted, but not before some of the onlookers encouraged her by shouting, “Say yes!”

Watch the proposal, which begins around the 1:55 mark.