Tweet
What? No Thread about the Mouth of Hell Opening Swallowing All That is Pure and Holy?
June 18, 2008
Hundreds of Gay Couples Wed in California
By JESSE McKINLEY
SAN FRANCISCO — With a quiet pride and a sense of history, hundreds of gay and lesbian couples across California wed on Tuesday, giving a human face to a landmark court decision and a powerful opening salvo in what is expected to be a bruising fall campaign here over the issue of same-sex marriage.
The marriages here and in many counties began just after 8 a.m. Pacific time, with the opening of the clerk’s office. But unlike 2004, when San Francisco broke state law to wed thousands of gay couples in a mad rush, many of Tuesday’s ceremonies had a sense of calm and permanence for gay newlyweds.
“It was so legally ambiguous last time,” said Lorie Franks, 43, who had come to City Hall to marry her partner, AnneMary Franks, in 2004 as well. “It was really touching, but we kind of knew it was on thin ice. This time, to me, feels more real.”
The Franks wedding, conducted in one of 19 locations arranged around San Francisco’s ornate City Hall building, was attended by her three daughters, who wore matching pink dresses and tiaras. “It was entirely their idea,” Lorie Franks said of their costumes. “As soon as they heard we were getting married, they said they wanted dresses.”
In Bakersfield, where couples exchanged vows on a tree-lined patio outside the clerk’s office, reporters and photographers outnumbered people applying for marriage licenses on Tuesday morning. There were no protesters in sight.
“We are so happy, we can’t stop smiling,” said Kathi Gose, 52, who wed Keren Briefer, 45, in Bakersfield on Tuesday morning.
The couple, who have been together for 11 years, plan to change their surnames to Briefer-Gose.
“We want to have the same rights as any other American citizen,” Ms. Gose said.
The weddings began in a handful of locations around the state at exactly 5:01 p.m. on Monday, the earliest time allowed by the decision by the California Supreme Court. County clerks’ offices in all 58 counties in the state were authorized to begin issuing the licenses on Tuesday.
In San Francisco, Del Martin, 87, and Phyllis Lyon, 84, longtime gay rights activists, were the first and only couple to be wed on Monday, saying their vows in the office of Mayor Gavin Newsom, before emerging to a throng of reporters and screaming well-wishers.
The selection of Ms. Martin and Ms. Lyon as San Francisco’s first same-sex married couple was symbolic; the couple wed here once before, in 2004, when the city issued more than 4,000 marriage licenses and conducted weddings in City Hall in contravention of state law. Those marriages were later invalidated by the state Supreme Court.
On May 15, however, the same court struck down the two California laws that prohibited such unions. Massachusetts legalized same-sex marriage in 2004, and more than 10,500 couples have wed there.
Same-sex marriage has been hotly contested nationwide and state by state in the courts and at the ballot box, and California is no exception. In November, the state’s voters will decide whether to effectively rescind the court’s decision through a ballot measure that would define marriage as “between a man and a woman.”
Forty-four states have enacted some sort of legal barrier — either a law or constitutional amendment — barring such unions. In 2004 alone, 13 states passed ballot measures banning same-sex marriage.
This year, however, proponents of same-sex marriage have found encouragement in both the California Supreme Court decision and in a subsequent order by Gov. David A. Paterson of New York, instructing agencies in his state to recognize same-sex marriages performed legally elsewhere. The California court has also rebuffed several challenges to its May 15 decision, made by two conservative legal groups and by Republican attorneys general who fear that the California marriages will lead to legal challenges brought in their own states.
One challenge was filed last week by the Liberty Counsel, a group based in Florida that wanted the California Court of Appeal to halt the weddings, to allow the State Legislature time to work out discrepancies in marriage law created by the state Supreme Court’s decision.
Mathew D. Staver, the founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel, said the ceremonies, which began on Monday, “make a mockery of marriage.”
“Marriage has traditionally been known, across continents and all geographical regions, as between a man and a woman,” said Mr. Staver, who is 51 and married. “Marriage between the same sex may be some sort of union, but it’s certainly not marriage.”
There has also been some local opposition to the ceremonies. In rural Kern County, north of Los Angeles, the county clerk has canceled all weddings performed by her office, a position she took after consulting with the Alliance Defense Fund, an Arizona legal group that argues against marriage for gay men and lesbians. Weddings at the county clerk’s office — long an affordable, no-frills option for couples — have also been called off in Butte County, north of Sacramento, the state capital.
In more liberal parts of the state, however, the weddings are being warmly embraced.
In Palm Springs, before a small army of reporters and photographers, Mayor Steve Pougnet married the first gay couple in Riverside County to obtain a marriage license after the ruling, Dean Seymour, 44 and Philip Colavito, 43, of Palm Springs.
Mr. Seymour, a native Californian and Mr. Colavito, born in Brooklyn, were married once before in 2004 in San Francisco, but that marriage was invalidated.
The two men have been together for eight years and they own an interior decorating business.
After Mr. Pougnet pronounced them married, both men embraced, kissed and screamed in unison, “We did it!”
“It feels great to be married. If we have to do it again, we’ll do it again until they get it right,” Mr. Colavito said in response to a question about the proposed constitutional amendment that would ban gay marriage in California.
“We’re as normal as everyone else and we deserve the right to marry,” Mr. Seymour said.
In Beverly Hills, Robin Tyler and Diane Olson married on Monday evening, saying their vows under a chuppah on the steps of the city’s courthouse. The ceremony was solemnized by a rabbi, Denise Eger.
“Great floods cannot dampen your love,” Rabbi Eger said. “Your courage brought you here today.”
Reporting was contributed by Michael Parrish from Bakersfield, Calif.; Ana Facio Contreras from Palm Springs, Carolyn Marshall from San Francisco and Oakland, and Rebecca Cathcart from Beverly Hills.
Hundreds of Gay Couples Wed in California
By JESSE McKINLEY
SAN FRANCISCO — With a quiet pride and a sense of history, hundreds of gay and lesbian couples across California wed on Tuesday, giving a human face to a landmark court decision and a powerful opening salvo in what is expected to be a bruising fall campaign here over the issue of same-sex marriage.
The marriages here and in many counties began just after 8 a.m. Pacific time, with the opening of the clerk’s office. But unlike 2004, when San Francisco broke state law to wed thousands of gay couples in a mad rush, many of Tuesday’s ceremonies had a sense of calm and permanence for gay newlyweds.
“It was so legally ambiguous last time,” said Lorie Franks, 43, who had come to City Hall to marry her partner, AnneMary Franks, in 2004 as well. “It was really touching, but we kind of knew it was on thin ice. This time, to me, feels more real.”
The Franks wedding, conducted in one of 19 locations arranged around San Francisco’s ornate City Hall building, was attended by her three daughters, who wore matching pink dresses and tiaras. “It was entirely their idea,” Lorie Franks said of their costumes. “As soon as they heard we were getting married, they said they wanted dresses.”
In Bakersfield, where couples exchanged vows on a tree-lined patio outside the clerk’s office, reporters and photographers outnumbered people applying for marriage licenses on Tuesday morning. There were no protesters in sight.
“We are so happy, we can’t stop smiling,” said Kathi Gose, 52, who wed Keren Briefer, 45, in Bakersfield on Tuesday morning.
The couple, who have been together for 11 years, plan to change their surnames to Briefer-Gose.
“We want to have the same rights as any other American citizen,” Ms. Gose said.
The weddings began in a handful of locations around the state at exactly 5:01 p.m. on Monday, the earliest time allowed by the decision by the California Supreme Court. County clerks’ offices in all 58 counties in the state were authorized to begin issuing the licenses on Tuesday.
In San Francisco, Del Martin, 87, and Phyllis Lyon, 84, longtime gay rights activists, were the first and only couple to be wed on Monday, saying their vows in the office of Mayor Gavin Newsom, before emerging to a throng of reporters and screaming well-wishers.
The selection of Ms. Martin and Ms. Lyon as San Francisco’s first same-sex married couple was symbolic; the couple wed here once before, in 2004, when the city issued more than 4,000 marriage licenses and conducted weddings in City Hall in contravention of state law. Those marriages were later invalidated by the state Supreme Court.
On May 15, however, the same court struck down the two California laws that prohibited such unions. Massachusetts legalized same-sex marriage in 2004, and more than 10,500 couples have wed there.
Same-sex marriage has been hotly contested nationwide and state by state in the courts and at the ballot box, and California is no exception. In November, the state’s voters will decide whether to effectively rescind the court’s decision through a ballot measure that would define marriage as “between a man and a woman.”
Forty-four states have enacted some sort of legal barrier — either a law or constitutional amendment — barring such unions. In 2004 alone, 13 states passed ballot measures banning same-sex marriage.
This year, however, proponents of same-sex marriage have found encouragement in both the California Supreme Court decision and in a subsequent order by Gov. David A. Paterson of New York, instructing agencies in his state to recognize same-sex marriages performed legally elsewhere. The California court has also rebuffed several challenges to its May 15 decision, made by two conservative legal groups and by Republican attorneys general who fear that the California marriages will lead to legal challenges brought in their own states.
One challenge was filed last week by the Liberty Counsel, a group based in Florida that wanted the California Court of Appeal to halt the weddings, to allow the State Legislature time to work out discrepancies in marriage law created by the state Supreme Court’s decision.
Mathew D. Staver, the founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel, said the ceremonies, which began on Monday, “make a mockery of marriage.”
“Marriage has traditionally been known, across continents and all geographical regions, as between a man and a woman,” said Mr. Staver, who is 51 and married. “Marriage between the same sex may be some sort of union, but it’s certainly not marriage.”
There has also been some local opposition to the ceremonies. In rural Kern County, north of Los Angeles, the county clerk has canceled all weddings performed by her office, a position she took after consulting with the Alliance Defense Fund, an Arizona legal group that argues against marriage for gay men and lesbians. Weddings at the county clerk’s office — long an affordable, no-frills option for couples — have also been called off in Butte County, north of Sacramento, the state capital.
In more liberal parts of the state, however, the weddings are being warmly embraced.
In Palm Springs, before a small army of reporters and photographers, Mayor Steve Pougnet married the first gay couple in Riverside County to obtain a marriage license after the ruling, Dean Seymour, 44 and Philip Colavito, 43, of Palm Springs.
Mr. Seymour, a native Californian and Mr. Colavito, born in Brooklyn, were married once before in 2004 in San Francisco, but that marriage was invalidated.
The two men have been together for eight years and they own an interior decorating business.
After Mr. Pougnet pronounced them married, both men embraced, kissed and screamed in unison, “We did it!”
“It feels great to be married. If we have to do it again, we’ll do it again until they get it right,” Mr. Colavito said in response to a question about the proposed constitutional amendment that would ban gay marriage in California.
“We’re as normal as everyone else and we deserve the right to marry,” Mr. Seymour said.
In Beverly Hills, Robin Tyler and Diane Olson married on Monday evening, saying their vows under a chuppah on the steps of the city’s courthouse. The ceremony was solemnized by a rabbi, Denise Eger.
“Great floods cannot dampen your love,” Rabbi Eger said. “Your courage brought you here today.”
Reporting was contributed by Michael Parrish from Bakersfield, Calif.; Ana Facio Contreras from Palm Springs, Carolyn Marshall from San Francisco and Oakland, and Rebecca Cathcart from Beverly Hills.
Comment