County clerk offices opened their doors Tuesday to hundreds of gay and lesbian couples with appointments to secure marriage licenses and exchange vows on the first full day same-sex nuptials were legal throughout California.
Yey!
From San Diego to Eureka, couples readied their formal wear, local licensing clerks expanded their staffs and conservative groups warned of a backlash as the nation's most populous state prepared to join Massachusetts in sanctioning gay unions.
In San Francisco, a gay men's chorus was singing on the front steps, where a party atmosphere was lit up by rainbow flags and supporters handing out cupcakes to happy couples.
You don't see this for straight marriages. They know how to have a party!!!!
Helen Zia and Lea Shigemura sang "The Chapel of Love" as they walked to the city attorney's office to get married. The couple, clad in beige jackets and slacks, exchanged vows with Zia's mother by their side.
"This is the most meaningful day of my life. I've always wanted to get married," Shigemura said. "I just never thought it'd be possible."
Unlike Massachusetts, which legalized same-sex marriage in 2004, California has no residency requirement for marriage licenses. Many couples are expected to head west to wed.
This is going to be a huge economic boost to California. Thousands of gay couples will flock to California to get a marriage certificate. That means hotels will be full, flower shops will sell out, and marriage planners will be booked. Not to mention what the state will receive in taxes now that tens of thousands of people will be newly married.
The May 15 California Supreme Court ruling that overturned the state's bans on same-sex marriage became final at 5:01 p.m. Monday, and clerks in at least five counties extended their hours to mark the occasion.
Already, dozens of same-sex couples have seized the opportunity to make their relationships official in the eyes of the law. They included actor and gay rights activist George Takei, who arrived with his longtime partner, Brad Altman, at West Hollywood City Hall on Tuesday morning to get their marriage license.
"Today we are all here to give flesh and blood reality to that ruling. We are going to make history," said Takei, who played Sulu in the 1960s "Star Trek" television series. "Congratulations to all of us and may equality live long and prosper."
Every county was required to start issuing new gender-neutral marriage licenses Tuesday with spaces for "Party A" and "Party B" where "bride" and "groom" used to be.
As couples prepared to marry at the Contra Costa County clerk's office Tuesday morning, three opponents of gay marriage from the Westboro Baptist Church picketed outside, carrying signs with sayings such as "God is your enemy."
Intolerance is your friend. Just because your book says homosexuality is wrong doesn't mean it's evil. Go picket in front of alcoholics' houses. They create more damage to society than gays and lesbians.
Members of the sect are most often seen at military funerals in demonstrations claiming U.S. combat deaths are God's punishment for the nation's tolerance of homosexuality.
This makes me giggle. I wonder how in the blue blazes they made THAT connection. Instead of saying it's God's punishment, say it's the voter's punishment for electing President Bush into office.
The protesters were easily outnumbered by about three dozen supporters of gay marriage, who held signs that read "Hate is not a family value" and "My marriage is not threatened by theirs, why is yours?" Police vehicles lined up near the demonstrators.
Yes, I would like to know how homosexual marriage tarnishes heterosexual marriages. And please don't pull out the Bible looking for Chapter and Verse. I want your own reason.
My guess is that they don't want gay marriages in churches. That's fine, the courthouse will do just fine for a lot of people.
This is an excerpt from another news article:
By the time Newsom presided over Martin and Lyon's new marriage on Monday, the battle lines for the fight in the fall had begun to form. Cardinal Roger Mahoney, the head of the archdiocese of Los Angeles. "The meaning of marriage is deeply rooted history and culture, and has been shaped considerably by Christian tradition. Its meaning is given, not constructed. When marriage is redefined so as to make other relationships equivalent to it, the institution of marriage is devalued and further weakened."
The ritual of marriage was performed long before the Christian Church was formed. To automatically identify it with the Church is blatantly arrogant on their part. The only type of marriages that are recognized by the United States are mainstream religious or court given marriages. I'm pretty sure Wiccan marriages are even binding by U.S. law.
This is taken from Wikopedia:
The first recorded use of the word "marriage" for same-sex couples also occurs during the Roman Empire. A number of marriages are recorded to have taken place during this period. In the year 342, the Christian emperors Constantius and Constans declared that same-sex marriage to be illegal. In the year 390, the Christian emperors Valentinian II, Theodoisus and Arcadius declared homosexual sex to be illegal and those who were guilty of it were condemned to be burned alive in front of the public.
From the early Christian era marriage was thought of as primarily a private matter, with no religious or other ceremony being required. Prior to 1545 Christian Marriages in Europe were by mutual consent, declaration of intention to marry and upon the subsequent physical union of the parties. The couple would promise verbally to each other that they would be married to each other; the presence of a priest or witnesses was not required. This promise was known as the "verbum." If made in the present tense (e.g. "I marry you"), it was unquestionably binding; if made in the future tense ("I will marry you"), it would constitute a betrothal, but if the couple proceeded to have sexual relations, the union was a marriage. One of the functions of churches from the Middle Ages was to register marriages, which was not obligatory. There was no State involvement in marriage and personal status, with these issues being adjudicated in ecclesiastical courts.
Newsom picked the couple for the only ceremony Monday in City Hall to recognize their 55-year relationship and their status as pioneers of the gay rights movement. More than 650 same-sex couples have made appointments to get marriage licenses in San Francisco before the end of the month.
55 years in waiting to get married. That's a shame.
Newsom called officiating the wedding "this extraordinary and humbling gift." After the mayor pronounced Martin and Lyon "spouses for life," the couple kissed, then emerged to a crowd of well-wishers who showered them with rose petals.
The celebrations are tempered by the reality that in a few months, Californians will go to the ballot box to vote on an initiative that would overturn the high court ruling and again ban gay marriage.
Once they see California's economy perk up, I'm sure the initiative will stand.
On Monday, three lawmakers and a small group of other same-sex opponents gathered outside the Capitol to criticize the Supreme Court decision. They urged voters to approve the ballot measure.
"This is an opportunity to take back a little bit of dignity ... for kids, for all of us in California," Republican Assemblyman Doug LaMalfa said. "It really disturbs me that the will of the people was overridden by four members of the Supreme Court."
It disturbs kids to see people happy? What part of a nasty divorce of two Christian hetero couple isn't disturbing to kids. Maybe it's better to have two moms in the house.
In both San Francisco and Beverly Hills, where two women became the first same-sex couple in Los Angeles County to marry legally, small groups of protesters waved signs with sayings like "Repent or Perish," but they were outnumbered by supporters waving rainbow-striped flags.
Homosexuality is a choice, not a disease. I'm sure these same people were waving the same signs when inter-racial marriages took place years ago.
Groups that oppose same-sex marriage have pursued several legal avenues to stop the weddings. On Monday, just hours before the ruling went into effect, a conservative legal group asked a Sacramento court to order the California agency that oversees marriages to stop issuing gender-neutral marriage licenses.
Oh My God! This would mean that it's ok for people to admit they have homosexual desires! It's a threat to everything society stands for! Where have our morals gone?!
Our morals went out the window after the priest/choir boy scandals of last decade.
A hearing was set for Tuesday.
A UCLA study issued last week estimated that half of California's more than 100,000 same-sex couples will get married over the next three years, and 68,000 out-of-state couples will travel here to exchange vows.
Money, Money, Money!
I've also seen people accuse defenders of gay rights as "gay lovers." This reminds me of the time around the civil rights movement where whites that encouraged the equality of blacks were branded "nigger lovers." Yes, I typed it out for shock value, not because I wanted to say it. To my eyes these two labels are one in the same. Are we on the brink of having a sexual orientation war? What lessons can we learn from the mishandling of the African American Civil Rights Movement and apply to the upcoming Gay and Lesbian Civil Rights Movement?
