“When he says he loves me, it’s as if I’m hearing it for the first time,” Kevin says about Bob. “I tingle inside, so I get to tingle for the rest of my life and it’s because of him — it’s because he loves me.”
Kevin Thomas, who is a retired interior designer, and Bob Johnson, who is an accountant for a local company, have been together for 49 years, and they have seen and been through it all.
They met on June 16, 1967 in Chicago and both were immediately taken with each other.
“He was very attractive,” Bob says. “I liked him immediately. He was very impressive, and it just felt right.”
Kevin grew up in Chicago and his family lived there at the time. Bob grew up in Iowa but was working in Chicago at the time for an insurance company. Within about 10 days of meeting each other, they were living together with Kevin moving in with Bob. They lived for two and half more years in Chicago, and then Bob got a job in Los Angeles, so they moved out there in December of 1969.
“I call Bob ‘my hero,’” Kevin says. “He’s my best friend, he’s my perfect counterpart.
“We have been through almost anything imaginable that a couple could go through – we’ve been broke, we’ve been hungry, we’ve had money, we’ve not had money, we’ve been through good times, we’ve been through stressful times. Certainly after 20 years of being together, we just started to embark on parenting, and it was difficult 20 years ago even in Los Angeles.”
By the end of 1994, after they both had personal setbacks and custody issues with their daughter and her surrogate mother, Kevin went to Orlando to visit his brother for a week. In that week, he found a job and bought a house, so he called Bob, told him and they decided to move within the next month.
“If there’s anything that would strengthen a relationship, like it did Bob’s and mine, it is to support each other through very, very difficult times,” Kevin says. “That experience alone was to keep us together forever, and we will be together forever – I mean it’s almost forever already.”
Being together for as long as they have been, they always wanted to get married but never thought it was an option. They fought for marriage equality and for domestic partnerships in Orange County. After it became legal last year, they decided they would get married, but they only wanted a small, intimate wedding in their backyard in their gazebo with very few special guests.
“I enjoyed the intimacy of it all,” Bob says. “It was nice having our friends with us for that intimate meeting of everyone – it was great and I loved it.”
They had their wedding on a Thursday morning at 11 a.m., because it was closest to the exact day and time they met 49 years ago. Next year on their 50th anniversary of being together and one-year marriage anniversary, they will have a big party that all of their friends will be invited to. They will have a celebration with a DJ and also repeat their vows in front of all their friends.
They had their honeymoon at Sawmill Resort in Pasco County.
“We were together two years before the Stonewall Riots,” Kevin says. “That was like the biggest news story of our day in the gay community. It was amazing that people fought back. Eventually when we moved to Los Angeles, I worked for the gay community; we were in the very first early parades in West Hollywood and then in San Francisco. We’ve lived, except for Bob’s employment, a very open life.”
They are both happy that they can now hold hands while walking down the streets and kiss each other without repercussions, as opposed to how it used to be back in the day.
YEARS TOGETHER: 49 years
WEDDING DATE: June 16, 2016
WEDDING VENUE: The gazebo in their backyard
WEDDING PLANNERS: Kevin planned a small, intimate wedding.
INTERESTING FACT: Eric Rollings was the officiant at their wedding.
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