During an impassioned legislative debate Monday over a measure to repeal Nevada’s gay marriage ban, Sen. Kelvin Atkinson (D-North Las Vegas) announced that he’s gay.

In what the Las Vegas Sun described as an “emotional moment,” Atkinson told of his father’s interracial re-marriage which would have been banned earlier in American history. Then the senator announced, “I’m black. I’m gay,” adding, “I know this is the first time many of you have heard me say that I am a black, gay male.”

Atkinson went on to rebut the argument that concept that same-sex marriage threatened other marriages.

“If this hurts your marriage, then your marriage was in trouble in the first place,” he said.

The Nevada Senate voted 12-9 to begin the process of repealing the gay marriage ban from the state constitution.