Gay Rights - Movement, Marriage & Flag | HISTORY

Contents:

• REFLECTG ON MASSACHETTS' HISTORIC GAY RIGHTS LG, 15 YEARS LATER: ANALYSIS
• MASSACHETTS PERFORMS FIRST GAY MARRIAG
• GAY RIGHTS
• LOOKG BACK AT THE LEGALIZATN OF GAY MARRIAGE MASS.

REFLECTG ON MASSACHETTS' HISTORIC GAY RIGHTS LG, 15 YEARS LATER: ANALYSIS

"To have the hight urt the state affirm your right to be a fay was wonrful, and jt gave you urage, " said Marcia Hams, who mped out ont of Cambridge Cy Hall on Sunday wh her bri-to-be, San Shepherd, to be the first le to apply for a marriage ci and towns the Bay State, cludg Cambridge, cid to open their licensg offic Sunday night so they uld beg handg out same-sex marriage applitns after midnight, when they bee the stroke of midnight, thoands of people broke to cheers as cy clerks Cambridge issued the first marriage license applitns to to gay and lbian and Shepherd were the first uple to fill out the crowd around Cambridge Cy Hall began throwg rice and sgg "The Star-Spangled Banner" as upl streamed through the ont door and to the clerk's male uple rried a sign readg "49 years together" wh pictur of their children and grandchildren on the the applitns are hand, upl will eher have to wa three days, or seek a waiver of the wag perd om a judge, before they n get a license to marry.

MASSACHETTS PERFORMS FIRST GAY MARRIAG

The cisn on whether to grant a waiver is up to each dividual same-sex marriag Monday will mark a tone the gay rights movement, the culmatn of more than a of legal challeng across the untry to laws limg marriage to upl of the oppose social nservativ, too, have been galvanized by the specter of same-sex marriag, anizg support of a feral nstutnal amendment outlawg the practice, as well as amendments a number of stat that would stop other urts om followg Massachetts' issue has also bee fodr for the printial race.

But while Bh favors amendg the Constutn, Kerry is opposed and says he supports civil unns for gay and lbian further fuel to the ntroversy is the fact that the natn's first same-sex marriag will take place Kerry's home show that a majory of Amerins oppose lettg gay and lbian upl legally marry. It layed the effective date of the cisn until Monday, to give the Legislature the opportuny to change the Legislature stead passed a nstutnal amendment that would overturn the urt's cisn, prohibg same-sex marriag but allowg civil unns for gay and lbian upl. In his State of the Unn addrs January 20, the print stopped short of endorsg a nstutnal amendment that would ban marriag for gay and lbian upl, as social nservative groups had hoped.

GAY RIGHTS

In November, the Massachetts high urt cleared the way for lbian and gay upl the state to marry, lg 4-3 that monwealth attorneys "failed to intify any nstutnally aquate reason" to ny them the right. AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTSAME-SEX MARRIAGE: THE OVERVIEWMay 18, 2004Correctn AppendHundreds of gay and lbian upl streamed to cy halls om Boston to the Berkshir on Monday as Massachetts beme the first state to allow same-sex marriag. It was unclear how many same-sex upl sought licens here Monday, but at least 900 upl showed up 29 of the state's 351 ci and towns, acrdg to town clerks and the office of the secretary of the were small monstratns by opponents of gay marriage -- and mera crews om a natnal nservative anizatn, the Fay Rearch Council, gathered imag to e anti-gay marriage the seeds of a full-fledged nflict were planted on Monday by sr of out-of-state upl who me to Massachetts to apply for marriage licens spe Gov.

''Here e the bris, so gay wh pri, isn't a wonr that they somehow survived, '' sang the guts at the weddg of the lead platiffs, Julie and Hillary Goodridge, who wore Armani pantsus and assigned their 8-year-old dghter Annie to be rg bearer and flower girl.

M., but the office was not yet open and they apparently went Drkwe of Rehoboth, who said he works a liquor store, said he was ''embarrassed'' that the state legalized gay marriage. ''I believe that a man and a woman are meant to f together, physilly and emotnal, '' he Boston, where large crowds of gay marriage supporters cheered each same-sex uple as they left Cy Hall, a small group of opponents om Washgton, D.

LOOKG BACK AT THE LEGALIZATN OF GAY MARRIAGE MASS.

A first csh of 41 upl led up the middle of the night to be the first gays and lbians to be legally married the Uned Stat, wh some of the platiffs the urt se gettg ont-of-the-le scene was jubilant.

A small group of protters was drowned out by an exuberant crowd of gay activists and cur lols who had gathered unr the brightly l ancient bell tower Central Square to wns 15 years’ remove om that moment, ’s difficult to remember how uncerta all a few months earlier, San Francis Mayor Gav Newsom had orred that marriage licens be issued to gay upl – only to have the California Supreme Court later validate them and the marriag that had been the Whe Hoe, Print Gee W. Romney would not make easy for gay upl; among other burecratic obstacl, he voked a 90-year-old state law that had been wrten to block terracial marriage to prevent same-sex upl om other stat om g to the Bay State to men wearg wa outsi Town Hall, where same-sex upl om across the untry gathered May 17, 2004, Provcetown, Mass.

Allowg gay upl to marry wasn’t a mastream posn eher polil party back John Kerry – then a senator om Massachetts, and the Democratic printial nomee 2004 – opposed gay marriage throughout his mpaign, favorg civil unns stead, what was viewed as a progrsive posn at the time. I am not favor of gay marriage, ” Obama said November 2008 – on the eve of his would take another four years -- and fully eight years after weddg bells first chimed for same-sex upl Massachetts -- before Bin pronounced himself fortable wh gay marriage. Obama – then nng for reelectn – followed su, acknowledgg an “evolutn” on the issue an terview wh ABC News’ Rob Roberts that ma him the first print to support gay upl fill out qutns about rincy on their applitn forms as they apply for marriage licens at the Cy Clerk's office Northampton, Mass., May 17, Jimenez/Getty Imag, FILEEven at that time, 2012, gay marriage was legal only six stat pl the District of Columbia.

The landmark Supreme Court se tablishg a fundamental right to marry me 2015 – effectively endg a polil bate ma more urgent on those urthoe steps 11 years, 2019, an openly gay printial ndidate has been featured on the ver of Time magaze alongsi his hband.

The Republin print he might n agast said, jt this week, he thks “’s great” that a married gay man is a pure historil cince, May 2004 Pete Buttigieg was an unrgrad at Harvard – the very cy, Cambridge, where the midnight marriage licens were issued. The road to marriage equaly began April 2001 when Gay and Lbian Advot and Defenrs, a nonprof group of attorneys that works on LBGTQIA+ issu, started a su agast the Massachetts Department of Public Health on behalf of seven gay and lbian upl who had been nied marriage licens. “I have been really pleasantly surprised at how differently people treat you when you're officially married and how eager and willg people have been to wele gay people to the fold, ” said Myrna Greenfield, Johnson’s wife.

Hundreds of gay and lbian upl will exchange weddg vows and obta marriage licenc today, as Massachetts be the first US state legally to sanctn gay an electn-year tone, the clerk's office Cambridge was due to open s doors at midnight last night for applitns om same-sex upl, while seven upl who succsfully sued for the right to marry will wed Boston. "Lol legislators, natnal policians and rightwg lobbyists have all sought va to reverse the urt's cisn or rce s impact, while gay activists across the untry have tried to palise on the lg to tt the boundari other stat.

A mayor New York state is beg prosecuted after performg gay marriag fal effort to block gay marriage Massachetts failed on Friday, when the US Supreme Court risted a last-mute legal challenge filed by nservative opponents of same-sex weddgs. A feral appeals urt has agreed to hear the se next month, but by that time clerks will probably have granted hundreds of marriage licenc to homosexual majory of Amerins are agast gay marriage but favour of civil unns for same-sex upl. Print Gee Bh has announced that he will support an effort to amend the nstutn to fe marriage as an exclively heterosexual Democratic challenger, John Kerry, a senator om Massachetts, is also opposed to gay marriage.

Dpe protts om the state ernor, Mt Romney, some of tomorrow's licenc will be granted to out-of-state gay upl who have travelled to Massachetts specifilly to get Romney tried to rurrect an almost century-old law to stop such unns, sayg he was aaid his state uld bee "the Las Vegas of same-sex marriage" clerks noted that the statute qutn had not been applied to heterosexual upl for many years, and plan to issue licenc to all gay upl om outsi the state who requt them. AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTMay 17, 2004Agast a backdrop of whoops and cheers and a party that spilled onto the streets, gay and lbian upl here began fillg out applitns for marriage licens at 12:01 a.

The uple, together sce they met while workg as machists 27 years ago, said they had been asked, bee of the length of their relatnship, to be the first uple by a lol gay rights anizatn. ''The stage for Monday's cultural watershed was set November, when the Massachetts Supreme Judicial Court led, a lawsu brought by seven same-sex upl, that gays and lbians had a nstutnal right to marry. The urt set May 17 as the day the marriag uld beg, and told the state Legislature to take whatever actn saw f to ply wh the urt's the Legislature, wh a large number of Democrats who are agast gay marriage, some bee of their Catholic fah, was not pleased wh the urt's 4-to-3 cisn.

In a bgly dismissive rponse Febary, the urt said, a seri of marathon nstutnal nventns, marked by emotnal oratory, filibterg and back-room bargag, the legislature voted late March to approve a nstutnal amendment that would ban gay marriage and tablish civil amendment nnot take effect unls is approved by another ssn of the Legislature and then by voters 2006, so uld not hold up the start of same-sex certa target of lawsus is a 1913 law that Gov.

Martorano upl who me to Cambridge Sunday night were enthiastic, but also sober, anticipatg cultural and enomic roadblocks ahead, and acutely aware of their role as reprentativ of a new era for gays and lbians. MASSACHUSETTS: The Legislature, which March passed a proposed amendment to the state nstutn that would ban gay marriag but legalize Vermont-style civil unns, will aga take up the proposed amendment the 2005-06 ssn.