Gay couples wed in US state

2008-11-13 12:02

West Hartford, Connecticut - Same-sex couples exchanged vows on Wednesday for the first time in Connecticut amid cheers and tears of joy, while gay activists planned protests across the country over the vote that took away their right to marry in California.

Surrounded by red roses and smiles, Jody Mock and Elizabeth Kerrigan, who led the lawsuit that overturned the state law, emerged from West Hartford's town hall to the cheers of about 150 people and waved their marriage licence high.

"We feel very fortunate to live in the state of Connecticut, where marriage equality is valued, and hopefully other states will also do what is fair," Kerrigan said.

The Connecticut Supreme Court ruled 4-3 on October 10 that same-sex couples have the right to wed rather than accept a 2005 civil union law designed to give them the same rights as married couples. A lower-court judge entered a final order permitting same-sex marriage on Wednesday morning. Massachusetts is the only other state that allows gay marriages.

Gay marriage advocates said they were planning nationwide demonstrations this weekend in more than 175 cities and outside the US Capitol in Washington. A Seattle blogger was trying to organise simultaneous protests outside statehouses and city halls in every state on Saturday.

In New York City, several hundred demonstrators gathered Wednesday outside a Mormon Temple to protest the church's endorsement of the same-sex marriage ban in California. Several people held signs asking "Did you cast a ballot or a stone?" while other signs read "Love not H8".

"I'm fed up and disgusted with religious institutions taking political stances and calling them moral when it's nothing but politics," said Dennis Williams, 36, of New York. "Meanwhile they enjoy tax-free status while trying to deny me rights that should be mine at the state and federal level."

Puzzled

Michael Otterson, a spokesperson for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said while citizens have the right to protest, he was "puzzled" and "disturbed" by the gathering given that the majority of California's voters had approved the amendment.

"This was a very broad-based coalition that defended traditional marriage in a free and democratic election," Otterson said.

Outside City Hall in New Haven, bubbles and white balloons bounced in the chilly autumn air as well-wishers cheered the marriage of Peg Oliveira and Jennifer Vickery.

Despite the roaring traffic and clicking cameras, "it was surprisingly quiet", Oliveira said after the brief ceremony. "Everything else dissolved, and it was just the two of us. It was so much more personal and powerful in us committing to one another, and so much less about the people around us."

According to the state public health department, 2 032 civil union licences were issued in Connecticut between October 2005 and July 2008.

But there was no comparison between civil unions and marriage for Robin Levine-Ritterman and Barbara Levine-Ritterman, who obtained a civil union in 2005 and were among eight same-sex couples who sued for the right to marry.

"We didn't do it with pride or joy," Barbara Levine-Ritterman said of getting the civil-union licence. "It felt gritty to be in a separate line."

Reflecting the change

On Wednesday, however, she proudly held up the first same-sex marriage licence issued in New Haven as about 100 people applauded outside City Hall. She and her betrothed, who held red roses, plan to marry in May.

Manchester Town Clerk Joseph Camposeo, president of the Connecticut Town Clerks Association, said clerks in the state's 169 communities were advised by e-mail shortly after 09:30 that they could start issuing marriage licences to gay couples.

The health department had new marriage applications printed that reflect the change. Instead of putting one name under "bride" and the other under "groom", couples will see two boxes marked "bride/groom/spouse."

Like the highest courts in Connecticut and Massachusetts, the California Supreme Court ruled this spring that same-sex marriage is legal. After about 18 000 thousand such unions were conducted in California, however, its voters last week approved Proposition 8, a referendum banning the practice.

Gay rights groups said on Wednesday they plan to ask California voters to overturn the ban if legal challenges to Proposition 8 are unsuccessful.

Constitutional amendments to ban gay marriage also passed last week in Arizona and Florida, and Arkansas voters approved a measure banning unmarried couples from serving as adoptive or foster parents.

- AP