More than 100 same-sex couples wed in Seattle after state law change
Hundreds of well-wishers braved cold and rain to celebrate 133 weddings at Seattle City Hall yesterday, marking the first day that same-sex couples could marry in Washington state.
Washington, Maine and Maryland last month became the first U.S. states to extend marriage rights to same-sex couples by a popular vote, in a leap forward for gay rights.
"It means that I can use the word husband without question or explaining," said Corianton Hale, a 34-year-old graphic designer, who was one of the first to tie the knot at City Hall. He married freelance copywriter Keith Bacon, 44.
"We originally registered to come down here to get married at City Hall because we thought we'd just get in and get out," said Bacon. "It ended up being this incredible experience."
About 300 people waited outside City Hall in frigid drizzle to cheer couples as they descended the steps to street level, some throwing rice, blowing bubbles and handing flowers to the newlyweds.
"I ' ve always said Seattle is a wonderful place to be gay, because it's got so many wonderful straight people in it, and you can see that here today on display," said Dan Savage, local author, gay rights activist and syndicated sex advice columnist who married Terry Miller.
"This is a party for same-sex couples in Seattle that is being thrown by the entire city," he told Reuters.
The ceremonies - which lasted all day - were watched by Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn, a longtime same-sex marriage supporter.
"What a wonderful thing to be able to support the commitment of these couples to each other and to herald the beginning of a new civil right," McGinn told Reuters inside City Hall.
McGinn's administration helped set up an efficient and elegant operation to handle the multiple nuptials. Couples and their guests lined up outside City Hall, then were ushered inside to a relaxed reception room with white table-cloths, small cupcakes in the colors of the rainbow and a pianist.
After a short ceremony at one of five wedding spots, couples were greeted with cheers as they exited City Hall accompanied by accordion music.
"It's really weird to have a whole bunch of strangers cheering you coming out of City Hall for something that so many people historically have been against. That's amazing," said Carrie Carson, a 40-year-old management consultant who married Lori Robb, 42, who works for technology giant Microsoft Corp .
MIDNIGHT MARRIAGES
In Capitol Hill, a gay-friendly neighborhood one mile northeast of downtown Seattle, a retired art gallery owner and an artist who met 35 years ago in a Chicago bar during a heavy snowstorm tied the knot and celebrated the first day of Hanukkah in a traditional Jewish civil ceremony.
Former gallery owner Stuart Wilber, 74, and long-time partner John Breitweiser, 64, wore tuxedos, white shirts and red bow ties.
The wedding was "a step toward federal equality," said Wilber, sporting a silver earring and snakeskin-patterned tennis shoes. "The younger generation doesn't understand what a big deal this is."
The couple, who met in Chicago's Broadway Limited bar, were also celebrating the first day of their 36th year together.
"We've worked together for this for a long time," Breitweiser said. "We expect this from our country. We should be treated equally. In many respects, our fight still goes on."
Hours earlier as midnight chimed, the first same-sex couples were married at a state court ceremony, starting with public elementary school teachers Sarah and Emily Cofer.
"We're so proud to live in this state that recognizes love and commitment," said Sarah Cofer, 31, after she and Emily Cofer, 32, uttered the words "I will" before judge Mary Yu at Seattle's King County Courthouse.
Washington's law went into effect on Thursday, when hundreds of eager couples lined up to apply for marriage licenses. The first legal same-sex weddings began on Sunday after a three-day waiting period required of all marriages expired.
King County - which includes Seattle and its suburbs - said it issued 623 marriage licenses in the three days after Thursday. Weddings took place across the state on Sunday.
The Cofers' union was the state's first same-sex wedding. Cameras clicked, observers clapped and their 9-month-old daughter Carter - born to one of the pair and adopted by the other - cried.
They were followed by 11 other couples who took their vows at 30-minute intervals through the night in Yu's 9th-floor courtroom decorated with poinsettia. Boxes of tissues were on hand for tearful guests.
OPINION SHIFT
Thirty-one U.S. states have passed constitutional amendments banning same-sex marriage, while Washington, D.C. and nine states have legalized it, including the three that did so on Election Day last month.
A Pew Research Center survey from October found 49 percent of Americans favored allowing gay marriage and 40 percent opposed. In May, President Barack Obama became the first U.S. president to say same-sex couples should be able to wed.
As gays and lesbians prepared for their nuptials in Washington state, the U.S. Supreme Court stepped into the fray over gay marriage on Friday by agreeing to review two challenges to federal and state laws that define marriage as between a man and a woman.
One onlooker in Seattle hoped that review would lead to the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act, or DOMA, passed by the U.S. Congress in 1996, which recognizes only marriages between a man and a woman and disqualifies same-sex couples from a host of federal benefits.
"We're so happy our friends are getting married, but we have decided to wait until it is legal in every state," said Anthony Fox, a 43-year-old healthcare worker, who was cheering married couples outside City Hall with partner Robert Darden, 41.
"We've decided to wait until DOMA's overturned," Fox said. "I actually think it might happen this spring."
For same-sex couples swapping vows in Washington state, the path to legalization has been rocky. The state's Democratic-controlled legislature passed a bill to legalize gay marriage in February, and Democratic Governor Christine Gregoire signed it into law.
But opponents gathered enough signatures to temporarily block the measure from taking effect and force the issue onto the state ballot. Voters, by 54 percent to 46 percent, ultimately approved gay marriage at the polls in November.
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Mr Pierre Portelli
Jan 19th, 10:14
LOL so "about 300 peopel" is a city celebrating? I would think it is more the practising, homosexual percentage of a city...Most normal people have become totally apathetic, that is why homosexuals and other minority groups that are so much more militant & vociferous...
Yasmine Tabone
Jan 5th, 12:25
Finally ! If we weren't so 'close-minded' and 'Oh-so-Holy' we could open ourselves up to love, too :)
Victoria Zammit
Dec 11th 2012, 18:16
And another thing: God created us in perfection? Please. The human population is the most imperfect and harmful of all of natures creations. We are a natural abomination, thanks to all the damage we've done to the world. We're not perfect, far from it, but we are perfectly as nature intended us to be. Homosexuality is not in anyway unnatural. Science has proven it. It is not an illness or a sin.
Victoria Zammit
Dec 11th 2012, 18:15
Let them get married, it is a basic human right. If you don't agree with it, so be it. But you don't have the right or privilege to deny other people something just because you don't agree with it. Freedom of speech/though means you have an opinion, but it doesn't mean that you're the only one who's right because you have this opinion.
Victoria Zammit
Dec 11th 2012, 18:14
You know what really gets to me? The fact that people are talking about 'god' and the Bible and religion and forgetting the fact that (1) it was never God himself that said ANYTHING against homosexuality and (2) just because you believe that in the Christian God doesn't mean that everyone else does, meaning you do not have the right to impose YOUR religious views on anyone else.
Edwina Gouder
Dec 11th 2012, 18:24
hear hear!!
Tyrone Grima
Dec 11th 2012, 16:36
It is very disturbing when people quote from the Bible and/or from the Catechism of the Catholic Church, without placing it in a context. The end result is fundamentalism and the spreading of hate and discriminatory language which is anything but Catholic. Catholicism promotes a life based on Grace and not on law.
Adrian Buckle
Dec 11th 2012, 16:28
@ Joe Zammit
"In homosexuality there is NO love; there is only lust."
Yes Joe, but LUST is FUN!!! You should try it sometime . . . Oh, you devil, see what you've done. You're turning me on!
Alex Buds
Dec 11th 2012, 15:22
I don't see anything wrong with this. It's not something I'd personally do or have the least interest in, but live and let live as they say.
Nobody interferes with single people who elect to remain single and not do any marriage at all. If that choice is respected in society, I don't see why not this.
A. Zammit
Dec 11th 2012, 09:31
Don't like same-sex marriage? Then don't get one.
I'm no priest but I know that it's not very 'Christian' of you all to ruin another persons happiness in marriage.
A.f Ellul
Dec 11th 2012, 06:41
Waiting for another Sodoma and Comora disaster .
Thomas Borg
Dec 11th 2012, 00:33
Another point i want to raise is this thing people are saying about not being 'Natural' Human beings have surpassed nature.... if we were all still following nature, we wouldn't be sitting at a computer and commenting on this article, most of us would probably be dead because face it... at one point or another technology saved us all.. and technology is not part of nature.. LOGIC AT ITS BEST!
Thomas Borg
Dec 11th 2012, 00:18
I love how people here are quoting scripture and all that. but probably when it comes to their own lives they don't follow the bible.. such as your body is a temple of god.don't taint it or cause damage to it by smoking or drinking excessively.please take a second to look into your own lives and see how you can make yourselves better,not just criticise other people.The bible teaches tolerance/love
Dav Bezz
Dec 10th 2012, 21:02
Another qoute from Mark 10: 6-9
"But at the beginning of creation God 'made them male and female.' 'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.' So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate."
Michael Calleja
Dec 11th 2012, 15:17
The bible was written by man not God. Did you meet God personally and speak to God. The bible is pretty harsh if you actually read it. Its full of killing, sex, and so much horrible things. This is why the Old testament is hardy even shown anymore.
Dav Bezz
Dec 10th 2012, 21:01
22 Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. 23 The man said, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called 'woman, ' for she was taken out of man." 24 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. Genesis 2: 22-24.
Mvella .
Dec 10th 2012, 20:20
For all, especially Joe Zammit, saying that homosexuality is against nature; when is the last time you read a scientific article? Over 1500 animal species have homosexual tendencies ranging from fish, to reptiles, to mammals. Last time I checked we are mammals.
And don't even get me started on the origins of marriage and how things went belly up once the church got involved......
Joe Zammit
Dec 11th 2012, 08:58
If you have read any pseudo-scientific article saying homosexuality is according to nature, you had better ignore it.
Homosexuality is an ABUSE of nature. Homosexuality is against nature because it goes directly against it.
Nature itself has its parts and each part has a purpose. The purpose of sexual organs is clear and any pseudo-scientific article is going to change their purpose.
Joe Zammit
Dec 10th 2012, 20:02
Adrian Buckle
You want to quote Holy Scripture on homosexuality. So please look up
Genesis 19: 1 – 29 where we read that people committed the grievous sin of homosexuality. God punished them severely for this sin and sent on Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from heaven.
Adrian Buckle
Dec 10th 2012, 20:19
Yes, Joe. The bible is very confused when it comes to homosexuality. Personally, I prefer the story of David and Jonathan because it is a story about love, not about fear, vengeance and destruction.
Thomas Borg
Dec 11th 2012, 00:23
What about turn the other cheek? live and let be? love thy neighbour?tolerance? he who is without sin throw the first stone? very easy to criticise when you can't look at yourself.. personally i try not to limit my self by teaching of institutions like religion, however i still respect people who believe as long as they don't limit other peoples' human rights..
Joe Zammit
Dec 11th 2012, 04:42
Adrian
Absolutely no! The Bible is clear about homosexuality. It is a grievous sin that separates the sinner from God and puts them on the path to hell.
Nowhere is homosexuality approved in the Bible because it goes against God's plan on humanity and especially on marriage.
In homosexuality there is NO love; there is only lust.
Joe Zammit
Dec 10th 2012, 19:58
A lock and a key go perfectly together.
Those favouring homosexual unions favour locking doors with two keys or two locks.
Madness really abounds!
Adrian Buckle
Dec 10th 2012, 19:53
David loved Jonathan in the bible. So what's wrong with a man loving a man or a woman loving a woman?
I hope these couples live happily with their families and their children. And if they don't have children of their own, may they find means of lovingly adopt children.
God bless them.
Louis Saliba
Dec 11th 2012, 00:16
@ Adrian Buckle
Perhaps you could explain how two males or two females can have children of their own in the same way as normal (i.e. male-female) couples.
I Bugeja
Jan 2nd, 08:35
Louis, they can not.
Similarly sterile couples can not have children of their own. God did not want them to have children so why should they?
People do not adopt children for their own good but for the children's good.
Any arguments about children being discriminated if they are parented by a gay couple only makes the person discriminating look bad and not the couple!
Joe Zammit
Dec 10th 2012, 19:40
L. Zerafa
Marriage has been instituted by God and does not change. It is ONLY a union between one man and one woman for life. It is so and so will it remain up to the end of time.
If you call a cat a dog, a cat will it remain.
If abroad some call homosexual unions marriages, they are not marriages and NEVER will they be so.
L Zerafa
Dec 10th 2012, 21:06
But it is in the institution. BY LAW, it is called a marriage and because of the separation of the church and state you must call it a marriage.
James Doyle
Dec 23rd 2012, 04:44
Well said Joe its time that people who dont agree with homosexual marriage spoke up .How are these unions going to be consmmated certainly not by sexual intercourse or do we change the law there as well.And if a couple want to divorce and use non consummation as the cause. O i dont know am getting all confused now just like Bill and Ben on their wedding night .The divorce lawyers will be luvin it
L Zerafa
Dec 10th 2012, 17:42
Readers, please me accurate in your comments. When saying 'MARRIAGE: ONE MAN ONE WOMAN', it is evidently not the case in Washington, Maine, Maryland, New York, Norway, Holland, (soon) Uk etc etc... Say 'MARRIAGE: ONE MAN ONE WOMAN (in Malta)'. It's like saying mountains and rainforests don't exist because we don't have them in Malta.
Louis Saliba
Dec 10th 2012, 19:10
@ L. Zerafa
Perhaps it would be more accurate to say "Marriage: One man,one woman (as Nature intended)".
Joe Zammit
Dec 10th 2012, 16:31
Edwina,
Willy-nilly, God has created humanity man and female, and God has instituted marriage as a union between one man and one woman for ever.
If you eliminate God, you are eliminating yourself! Also now, after God has created you, He is still keeping you alive until the day of death which is already written on your head.
What God has instituted, let no devil disturb!
C Demanuele
Dec 10th 2012, 17:00
Have you ever realised that gay people are also born of nature and thus are pert of nature? Yes God created nature so God created gays as well.
Joe Zammit
Dec 10th 2012, 17:19
God has created nature but he did not create homosexuals or heterosexuals. God has created humanity, perfect under every respect. On account of sin then concupiscence has imbued humanity.
So now all of us suffer some bad tendency and this is the temptation. Now we can prove to God that we love him by not succumbing to the temptation but by denying ourselves by God's grace in order to please Him.
Edwina Gouder
Dec 10th 2012, 16:14
Taf xi trid tghid? Kemm hawn min hu injorant u mohhu ta' tigiega.Kieku xi hadd qed jisfurzakom tizzewweg xi hadd tal-istess sess tieghek nghid! Imbaghad l-isbah meta xi Joseph John Camilleri jigi jparla ghax god u mhux god. Please keep your god to yourself. Marriage is a state affair, not a church affair.
Anthony Galea
Dec 10th 2012, 17:33
No. Marriage is a spiritual covenant. There are other forms of purely legal forms of unions, like the Civil Union, which is full legal recognition of same-sex couples at state level without invoking the word marriage, that great spiritual covenant designed for procreation and the continuation of humanity
Joe Zammit
Dec 10th 2012, 15:57
Par.2357 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church reads:
Homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered. They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity.
Under no circumstances can they be approved.”
C Demanuele
Dec 10th 2012, 16:30
and who invented natural law? not nature of course as it doesn't speak, but a good guess is a homophobic culture who wrote the verses you are quoting. if you observe nature, it lives by its own, but yet again it is tolerant, accepting and colourful.
you just want a black and white society. that doesn't exist any more in a Democratic society.
Simon Ciantar
Dec 10th 2012, 15:51
Prosit - this the type of society the "liberals" and "open minded" people would have in Malta too. next it would be same sex families raising children... this just plain SICK , if they want to enjoy each other's company by all means do so but dont expect the state to endorse it and legislate it
Claudio Cilia
Dec 10th 2012, 15:39
Congratulations all! Love and Respect first :)
Anthony Galea
Dec 10th 2012, 15:09
Marriage: one man, one woman.
Mark Anthony Fenech
Dec 10th 2012, 14:59
The provincial and insular mentality of some Maltese who will stamp their feet and refute other people their happiness is what is sick, not people celebrating the happiest day of their lives.
E. Azzopardi
Dec 10th 2012, 14:55
In my opinion ( and I do not think I am alone on this) this is simply just not "natural" and for a number of good reasons.
Thomas Borg
Dec 11th 2012, 00:35
Find my comment and tell me what you think..
Michael Seychell
Dec 10th 2012, 14:52
Unfortunately in our country whilst both Party Leaders were against same sex marriage, according to Evarist Bartolo Dr. J.M made another U Turn and is now in favour of such marriage. Giving civil rights to gays is one thing, but accepting them as a normal family is another.
If what Evarist said is true than JM believes in only one principle The End Justifies The Means.
M.Seychell TalPieta
Mark Anthony Fenech
Dec 10th 2012, 14:04
The provincial and insular mentality of some Maltese who will stamp their feet and refute other people their happiness is what is sick, not people celebrating the happiest day of their lives.
fred sammut
Dec 10th 2012, 13:46
if 2 persons love each other and they want to marry......... HONESTLY IT WOULD NOT EFFECT ME......
they are not a burden , so for me no pboblem at all
and I think it would last more than man and woman marragies.........
Mark Anthony Fenech
Dec 10th 2012, 13:46
The provincial and insular mentality of some Maltese who will stamp their feet and refute other people their happiness is what is sick, not people celebrating the happiest day of their lives.
Edw.Ingo Formosa
Dec 10th 2012, 13:41
"Based on his 30-year study of the life cycles of civilizations – including Babylon, Egypt, Greece and Rome – historian Arnold Toynbee warned: 'Civilizations die from suicide, not murder,' and 'Of the 22 civilizations that have appeared in history, 19 of them have collapsed when they reached the moral state the United States is in now.' He made that observation in the early 1970s
Adrian Buckle
Dec 10th 2012, 12:54
I wish the couples involved a long and happy life together and hope that they will be able to raise families of their own. God bless!
Joseph John Camilleri
Dec 10th 2012, 15:40
What families can they raise? People of the same sex can't have babies and don't tell me they can by surrogate mothers. This is what the world is coming to now because we have taken God out of or life.
C Demanuele
Dec 10th 2012, 16:35
@Joseph John Camilleri - same-sex couples have raised families for ages. just open your eyes and have a decent look around you. somewhere next to you, you will definitely find
Peter Camilleri
Dec 10th 2012, 17:31
@ Adrian Buckle
You really mean raising children belonging to only one of them and to some other person of the opposite sex and then deluding such children that they have two fathers or two mothers. How sick one can get?
Ramon Casha
Dec 10th 2012, 12:29
More than 100 couples celebrated the long-awaited happiest day of their lives and the only thing that some people can do is despise them for it. That is what's sick.
Thomas Borg
Dec 11th 2012, 00:29
Couldn't agree more...
John Portelli
Dec 10th 2012, 11:58
This is plan and simple SICK what a sick rotten world we are living in.
Joe Zammit
Dec 10th 2012, 11:57
Marriage is a union between one man and one woman for life. Marriage is so and so will it remain for ever.
Joseph John Camilleri
Dec 10th 2012, 15:37
I agree. That is what happens when we eliminate God from our life, and say that this is the modern way of doing things.
Joseph Cauchi Senior
Dec 10th 2012, 11:53
The mighty USA is on the verge of “The Fall of the Roman Empire”!
The clock is ticking!
Pity!
JC.
Louis Cutajar
Dec 10th 2012, 11:52
Biex nidhru moderni u aġġornati qed nispiċċaw ngħawġu l-fatti u l-verita. Qatt ma nista' dak li hu abjad ngħidlu iswed. Iż-żwieġ huwa bejn mara u raġel biss. L-għaqda ta' bejn żewġ persuni tal-istess sess tissejjaħ imma mhux żwieġ. Hemm bżonn nibqgħu ngħożżu il-valur taż-żwieġ bejn mara u raġel li huwa l-pedament tas-soċjeta.
P. Vincenti
Dec 10th 2012, 11:08
Marriage is for people of the opposite sex. This is a mockery of a very serious matter.
M Abdilla
Dec 10th 2012, 12:09
How are you being affected by this? They're in love, so they got married. That's what marriage is all about
Joe Zammit
Dec 10th 2012, 12:45
Mr Abdilla,
They are not in love; they are in lust. Love comes from God; lust comes from the devil.
God's plan on marriage is between one man and one woman; the devil's plan on marriage is a homosexual one.
Love and lust appear the same on the outside; but in essence they are different.
Luke Caruana
Dec 10th 2012, 13:46
Thanks for this Religion lesson Joe Zammit. Lame.
Its a state law so religion and your opinions have nothing to do with all this.
Mark Anthony Fenech
Dec 10th 2012, 13:49
And pray tell me Mr Zammit, how do you know that?
JIMMY ATANASIO
Dec 10th 2012, 14:28
the bible tells us that god made adam and eve not adam and dave.it's that simple.this is not marrage but a mockery of marrage.it's just that
C Demanuele
Dec 10th 2012, 15:39
@ Mr. Zammit,
thanks for the info.
then please tell me how God and the devil get into this. Love is Love. plain and simple. you have just made a statement on sexism apart from a homophobic one.
Anthony Galea
Dec 10th 2012, 16:02
No Mark, love is a part, albeit a powerful part, of what marriage is all about.
You're ignoring the rest.
Joe Zammit
Dec 10th 2012, 21:19
Luke
Facts on marriage cannot be changed. If marriage is a union between one man and one woman, not state is going to change that. The state can deceive itself by calling a cat a dog, but the cat will remain a cat and will never be a dog.
Mr Mike Farrugia
Dec 10th 2012, 09:00
We will be getting brothers and sisters marrying soon. Then cats and dogs and cars and boats will follow.
fred sammut
Dec 10th 2012, 13:41
have a look at Indian news......
Please choose the reason of your report below: