14 DAY TRIAL // US Marine Corps captain Matthew Phelps has made history when, on a visit to the White House, he decided to drop on one knee and propose to his partner Ben Schock. A photo of the proposal, posted on Facebook, immediately went viral.
Click on the image above to see it in full and, yes, in case you were wondering, Ben said yes.
In an email to The Huffington Post, Matthew explains how he planned the proposal, but never even imagined it would generate the kind of media attention it did.
He’s been inundated with congratulations and well wishes ever since it went viral, adding to the joy he was already feeling at the thought that Ben had said yes.
“I wanted to propose to Ben at the White House because that's where we went for our first date, to the LGBT Pride Month Reception in June,” Phelps says.
“Although we had met a couple years prior at the 2010 Servicemembers Legal Defense Network annual dinner, we didn't actually start dating until we both made it back to Washington D.C. two years later,” he adds.
“When we received an invitation from the Military Partners and Families Coalition to attend the White House holiday tour on Dec. 15, the coincidence that it would be the six-month anniversary of our first date – and also to the White House – was too big not to capitalize on,” the captain further says.
Little did he imagine he would be writing history in the process, by becoming the first gay man ever to propose to his partner at the White House.