SAN FRANCISCO
Thousands of same-sex couples tie the knot at City
Hall
By LeiLani Dowell and Bill Hackwell
San Francisco
Feb. 17 update: Despite strong winds and rain, hundreds
continued to line up to be married. The city has married 2,636
couples as of today. Two different courts today that heard
right-wing challenges to the city issuing marriage licenses to
same-sex couples refused to issue injunctions to stop
it.
On Feb. 12, when the City Hall of San
Francisco opened its doors and started issuing marriage
licenses to same-sex couples, it opened something else as well:
a window in history that let in the wind that will eventually
bring full equality for all relationships, regardless of sexual
orientation.
The first couple to be married were longtime lesbian
activists Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin, who have been together
for 51 years. The two women founded the first national lesbian
organization, Daughters of Bilitis, in 1955.
Over the next five days, through the holiday weekend, nearly
2,500 couples from the lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans
communities were married in civil ceremonies--in the City Hall
rotunda for the entire world to see.
Long lines of couples accompanied by witnesses, friends and
relatives wrapped around City Hall. Many waited in line
overnight in rainy weather for the chance to be married in what
can only be described as a historic act of mass civil
disobedience.
Newly elected Mayor Gavin Newsom, not a liberal Democrat,
has been under pressure from the LGBT communities and
progressive supporters across the country. As a result, on Feb.
12 he directed city officials to begin issuing licenses to
same-sex couples. Newsom ordered City Hall to stay open over
the three-day holiday weekend.
More than 200 city workers volunteered their time so that as
many people as possible could get married.
On Feb. 14, the mood in the long lines was jubilation. It
was also lost on no one that this indeed was a moment in
history, a step toward overcoming institutionalized
discrimination against same-sex couples.
The process moved slowly but no one seemed to care as they
packed inside the city assessor's office to take out the
marriage licenses and pay the fees. After that each couples was
led to the fourth-floor rotunda, where deputy commissioners and
judges performed the ceremonies for free.
While the number of marriages being performed could have
made the occasion seem like an assembly line, each ceremony was
conducted with dignity and as much time was given to each
couple as was needed.
As many as 85 percent of those being married were from San
Francisco. Others came from as far away as South Africa. Many
of those from out of town who did not have family and friends
present left their cell phones on so that loved ones could
listen in.
As each married couple left City Hall waving their marriage
license, those waiting in line for their turn cheered
wildly.
Meanwhile in Sacramento, the California capital, more than
1,000 converged from throughout the state for a rally in
conjunction with events across the country to demand full
marriage equality rights for all. Many of those present had
been married in San Francisco the day before, and the event was
a celebration as much as a protest.
Even as they gathered, the same-sex marriage ceremonies were
still taking place simultaneously two hours away in San
Francisco. And that lesbian-gay-bi-trans forces were springing
into action across the country around the issue, buoyed by this
recent development.
Many protesters also expressed their enthusiastic commitment
to stand in solidarity with the people of Iraq at the March 20
demonstration in San Francisco, and signed petitions to "bring
the troops home now."
San Francisco's defiance of the California law that defines
marriage as between a man and a woman was immediately
challenged in the state court by reactionary groups like the
Proposition 22 Legal Defense and Education Fund and the
euphemistically named for California Families." These forces
say the marriage certificates of these 2,000 couples are not
worth the paper they are written on.
They are wrong. Regardless of what happens in court Feb. 17,
a new phase in the struggle for LGBT rights has opened up.
There is no going back.
Keith Pavlik contributed to this article.
Reprinted from the Feb. 26, 2004, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww@workers.org
Subscribe wwnews-subscribe@workersworld.net
Support independent news http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php)
HOME
:: U.S. NEWS ::
WORLD NEWS ::
EDITORIALS ::
SUBSCRIBE ::
DONATE
Email
this article
Printable
page