SEATTLE — Same-sex couples in Washington began reciting wedding vows at events across the state Sunday, the first day they could marry after the state’s gay-marriage law took effect.
About 140 couples had registered to marry at Seattle City Hall, which had set up five chapels to accommodate the revelers. Starting at 10 a.m., cheers and applause regularly broke out as another couple’s marriage became official. Weddings at City Hall were to continue through 5 p.m.
Mayor Mike McGinn, who greeted couples at they arrived, called it a “great day, a joyous day.”
“It’s really wonderful,” he said. “A new civil right is going to be recognized in this great civil institution.”
Keith Bacon and Corianton Hale of Seattle, who celebrated their six-year anniversary the night before, hugged and kissed to loud cheers and camera flashes as they took their vows before one of the 16 area judges who volunteered to officiate the weddings Sunday.
“We’re totally thrilled,” Bacon said. The couple had a commitment ceremony in August but said this day was particularly special.
“We had looked at this as maybe a day we would sign a piece of paper and seal the deal, and instead we’re having this huge party being thrown in our honor,” Bacon said. “It’s just mind-blowing.”
Nancy Monahan, 57, a retired petty office with the Coast Guard, waited outsidebefore the weddings began with her partner of 14 years, Deb Needham, 48.
Monahan was wearing her uniform, and Needham was wearing an ivory dress and jacket and matching hat. They said they wanted to join the large wedding event at city hall because of the significance of the day.
“It’s not very private, but very historic,” Needham said, to which Monahan added, “And very awesome.”
Some courthouses, including in King and Thurston Counties, opened right at midnight, and started marrying couples. Private weddings are expected to take place acrossthe state, as well as some other public events. The Paramount Theater in Seattle was also to host a large wedding reception for couples.
Hundreds of homosexual couples picked up their marriage licenses as early as 12:01 a.m. Thursday, but because of the state’s three-day waiting period, the earliest weddings could take place was Sunday. In King County, home to Seattle, more than 600 same-sex marriage licenses had been issued by Saturday.
Last month, Washington, Maine and Maryland became the first states to approve same-sex marriage by popular vote. They joined six otherstates - New York, Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont - and the District of Columbia that had already enacted laws or issued court rulings permitting same-sex marriage.
Couples in Maryland also started picking up marriage licenses Thursday, though their licenses won’t take effect until Jan. 1. Maine’s law takes effect Dec. 29. There’s no waiting period in Maine, and people can start marrying just after midnight.
Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire and Secretary of State Sam Reed certified the election results of Referendum 74 on Wednesday afternoon, andthe law took effect at 12:01 a.m. Thursday. Same-sex couples who previously were married in another state that allows same-sex marriage, like Massachusetts, will not have to get remarried in Washington state. Their marriages became valid there as soon as the law took effect.
The referendum had asked voters to either approve or reject the state law legalizing same-sex marriage that legislators passed earlier this year. That law was signed by Gregoire in February but was put on hold pending the outcome of the election. Nearly 54 percent of voters approved the measure.
The law doesn’t require religious organizations or churches to perform marriages, and it doesn’t subject churches to penalties if they don’t marry homosexual couples.
Married homosexual couples will still be denied access to federal pensions, health insurance and other government benefits available to heterosexual couples because the 1996 federal Defense of Marriage Act bars federal recognition of gay unions.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday said it will take up same-sex marriage sometime during the current term. Several pending cases challenge the federal benefit provision of the act. A separate appeal asks the justices to decide whether federal courts were correct in striking down California’s Proposition 8, an amendment that outlawed gay marriage, after it had been approved by California courts in the nation’s most populous state.
Front Section, Pages 2 on 12/10/2012