Nov 12, 2008 7:52 pm US/Eastern
First Same-Sex Marriage Performed In Conn.
Nutmeg State Joins Massachusetts As Only 2 In Nation To Allow Gay Partners To Wed
COLCHESTER, Conn. (CBS) ―
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Same-sex couple Ariel Owens and his spouse Joseph Barham walk arm in arm after they were married at San Francisco City Hall June 17, 2008, in San Francisco.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Less than two hours after a court ruling became official, a judge has performed a wedding of a same-sex couple in Connecticut.
Peg Oliveira and Jennifer Vickery of New Haven got married next door to New Haven City Hall near a farmer's market. They said their vows and exchanged rings in a brief ceremony led by state Appellate Court Judge F. Herbert Gruendel.
The wedding follows the final order issued earlier Wednesday by a New Haven judge to legalize gay marriage.
Eight same-sex couples had sued, claiming the state's law prohibiting gay marriage was discriminatory.
New Haven Superior Court Judge Jonathan Silbert held a brief hearing Wednesday morning and ruled that gay and lesbian couples can pick up marriage license forms at town and city clerks' offices statewide.
The Connecticut Supreme Court ruled 4-3 on Oct. 10 that same-sex couples have the right to wed rather than accept a civil union law designed to give them the same rights as married couples.
CBS 2 HD spoke with one couple who helped turn the law around.
"We've been dreaming of getting married for 33 years," Peck said.
The couple has been in a four-year legal fight to have the law reversed. The courts agreed with them.
"My parents always said when you grow up you'll find the person you'll get married to and Janet is that person for me," Conklin said.
After 14 years together, Eniko Mikle and Cheryl Hensel made it official Wednesday, joining hands as wife and wife.
"Today is the first day, [and] we chose to take advantage of it," Mikle said. "It's a great day – it's a very emotional day."
Their day started with a trip to the office of the Fairfield town clerk, to get a marriage license.
Hensel says she understands that not everyone accepts her decision to marry another woman.
"I understand that they have a different point of view," Hensel said. "I hope that someday they get to know us better, and they'll join us in our happiness."
There will be no appeal of the court's decision. In fact, even opponents of same-sex marriage contend reversing the decision will not be easy.
"It will be a long road," said Peter Wolfgang, who runs the Family Institute of Connecticut. "It won't happen overnight."
Opponents contend marriage should be between a man and a woman.
"Had our opponents gone through the legislature, or, even more, through a vote of the people they could say with some justification, okay, this battle is over now. The people of Connecticut accept this," Wolfgang said. "But when you have four judges undemocratically imposing it on the state of Connecticut there's no way they can legitimately say that the people of Connecticut accept same-sex marriage."
To reverse the court decision, it would take approval by three-fourths of the legislature and then a voter referendum, which appears unlikely.
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."
Only Connecticut and Massachusetts have legalized gay marriage.
The unions were legal in California until a statewide referendum to ban gay marriage narrowly passed last week. The vote has sparked protests and several lawsuits asking that state's Supreme Court to overturn the
prohibition.
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.
But in Connecticut, voters last week rejected the idea of a constitutional convention to amend the state's constitution, dealing a major blow to opponents of same-sex marriage.
"There's always that worry in the back of our head," Peg Oliveira said about the possibility of someday losing her marriage rights. "I don't see it going in that direction right now."
Oliveira, a 36-year-old yoga teacher and educational consultant, plans to marry Jennifer Vickery, a 44-year-old lawyer, on the New Haven green on Wednesday. Oliveira said marriage will make clear her spouse's rights to raise their 3-month-old baby if something should happen to her.
"We're thrilled and we don't want to wait one minute," she said. "I want to show the folks who worked so hard to make this possible that we are very grateful and we don't want to wait any longer to be able to say the words `We are married."'
Oliveira and Vickery did not enter into a civil union, believing the arrangement would have signaled to lawmakers that they had done enough.
"There's a world of understanding to the word marriage that simply doesn't exist with civil unions," Oliveira said. "The relationship feels validated by the external world."
Connecticut state Rep. Beth Bye and her partner Tracey Wilson hope to make history on Wednesday by becoming the first gay couple to marry in their town of West Hartford.
For Wilson, it's not just a personal milestone, but a professional one as well. She's the town's historian.
"She'd love to be the first one in town," joked Bye, who spent hours as a lawmaker listening to testimony on the marriage issue in 2007. She was a member of the Judiciary Committee which approved a bill that would have allowed same-sex couples to wed.
In 2005, Bye and Wilson had a big "wedding" ceremony at their church, before more than 150 guests, when they got a civil union. On Wednesday, they plan to show up at town hall with their kids, dressed in street clothes, and have a friend who is a local state senator and justice of the peace make it all official.
"I think for us, we really were married three years ago in our church," Bye said. "But it feels different that our state is saying, 'now you're married. You have the same rights as everyone else."'
The Family Institute of Connecticut, a political action group that opposes gay marriage, condemned the high court's decision as undemocratic.
Peter Wolfgang, the group's executive director, acknowledged banning gay marriage in Connecticut would be difficult but vowed not to give up.
"Unlike California, we did not have a remedy," Wolfgang said. "It must be overturned with patience, determination and fortitude."
In New York, Governor David Paterson supports gay marriage, but says he won't push for it until the budget crisis has passed.
CBS 2's Mary Calvi, Tony Aiello, and Magee Hickey contributed to this report.
(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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