The Essential Guide to Gay and Lesbian Weddings (17 page)

January 7, 1975:
Two gay men in Phoenix, Arizona, legally obtain a marriage license and are wed in a ceremony at the local Church of Christian Fellowship. A superior court judge, citing the Bible, later voids the marriage. Soon afterward the Arizona House of Representatives votes thirty-seven to three to pass an emergency measure specifically banning same-sex marriages.

March 26, 1975:
After the local district attorney rules that there are no county laws preventing two people of the same sex from getting married, a county clerk in Boulder, Colorado, issues a marriage license to two men. Over the next month, she issues five more licenses to same-sex couples. “I don't profess to be knowledgeable about homosexuality or even understand it,” says Clela Rorex, “but it's not my business why people get married. No minority should be discriminated against.” In late April, the Colorado attorney general rules that these marriages are illegal and orders Ms. Rorex to stop issuing licenses to same-sex couples.

October 11, 1976:
Dr. Tom Waddell and Charles Deaton are the first gay couple to be featured in the Couples section of
People
magazine. The article's subhead reads, “We have the same problems as any other couple.”

June 30, 1984:
The Unitarian Church votes to recognize and approve ceremonies celebrating the union of gay and lesbian couples.

December 5, 1984:
Berkeley, California, becomes the first city in the United States to extend spousal benefits to gay city employees' live-in lovers. To qualify under the new program, applicants must fill out and submit an “Affidavit of Domestic Partnership.”

1987:
The American Civil Liberties Union passes a resolution supporting the legal recognition of lesbian and gay marriages.

October 10, 1987:
One thousand gay and lesbian couples exchange vows in a mass wedding held on the steps of the Internal Revenue Service building in Washington, D.C.

October 1, 1989:
Denmark legalizes same-sex marriages.

1991:
The short-lived Fox sitcom
Roc
airs an episode called “Can't Help Loving That Man,” in which Roc's brother comes to visit with his lover and announces that the two of them are getting married. Another three years will pass before the next network same-sex wedding occurs on
Northern Exposure.

June 13, 1994:
The annual wedding cover of the
New Yorker
magazine features an illustration of two men posed in front of a cake topped with two grooms.

January 2, 1995:
Hans Jonsson and Sven-Olav Jansson become Sweden's first gay couple to legally marry under that nation's new legislation.

February 5, 1995:
“A Commitment to Love,” an event billed as “the World's Only Gay and Lesbian Wedding Fair” is held in Chicago. An estimated one thousand people attend.