Former Roselle Park, New Jersey Mayor Joseph DeIorio married jazz
singer Thos Shipley on Saturday in New York.
According to The New York Times, the Rev. Charles D. Morris
performed the ceremony at the Fort Washington Collegiate Church. The
couple helps lead the church's outreach to LGBT congregants.
DeIorio, a Republican, served as the mayor of Roselle Park from
1995 to 2010, and spent five years on the council before becoming
mayor. He publicly came out gay after leaving his office.
In
a video uploaded in March to YouTube by Shipley, DeIorio is seen
proposing marriage in Times Square.
“And five years later, I just wanted to spend my whole life with
you, be with you, grow old together. And you know me, I've just got to
shout it out to the world that I love you right here in Times Square
in front of us, our friends, our family and all the tourists,”
DeIorio said before getting down on one knee and producing an
engagement ring. As he did, people in the bleachers held up signs
which together read, “Thos Shipley will you marry me?”
DeIorio explained in a The New York Times video the
significance of proposing in Times Square: “On our first date, we
were in Times Square and I said to him, 'If there's one thing you
would want to do right now, what would it be?' And you turned and
said to me?”
“I want to hold your hand,” Shipley answered.
“That was a huge deal for me to do that,” DeIorio said.
“Sometimes you've just got to jump.” (The video is embedded on this
page. Visit
our video library for more videos.)