Same-sex couples exchanged vows on Wednesday for the first time in Connecticut amid cheers and tears of joy, while gay activists planned protests across the country over the vote that took away their right to marry in California.
Surrounded by red roses and smiles, Jody Mock and Elizabeth Kerrigan, who led the lawsuit that overturned the state law, emerged from West Hartford’s town hall to the cheers of about 150 people and waved their marriage license high.
“We feel very fortunate to live in the state of Connecticut, where marriage equality is valued and hopefully other states will also do what is fair,” Kerrigan said.
The Connecticut Supreme Court ruled 4 to 3 on Oct. 10 that same-sex couples have the right to wed rather than accept a 2005 civil union law designed to give them the same rights as married couples. A lower-court judge entered a final order permitting same-sex marriage on Wednesday morning. Massachusetts is the only other state that allows gay marriages.
Gay marriage advocates said they were planning nationwide demonstrations this weekend in more than 175 cities and outside the US Capitol in Washington. A Seattle blogger was trying to organize simultaneous protests outside statehouses and city halls in every state tomorrow.
In New York City, several hundred demonstrators gathered on Wednesday outside a Mormon Temple to protest the church’s endorsement of the same-sex marriage ban in California. Several people held signs asking “Did you cast a ballot or a stone?” while other signs read “Love not H8.”
“I’m fed up and disgusted with religious institutions taking political stances and calling them moral when it’s nothing but politics,” said Dennis Williams, 36, of New York. “Meanwhile they enjoy tax-free status while trying to deny me rights that should be mine at the state and federal level.”
Michael Otterson, a spokesman for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said while citizens have the right to protest, he was “puzzled” and “disturbed” by the gathering given that the majority of California’s voters had approved the amendment.
“This was a very broad-based coalition that defended traditional marriage in a free and democratic election,” Otterson said.
Outside City Hall in New Haven, bubbles and white balloons bounced in the chilly autumn air as well-wishers cheered the marriage of Peg Oliveira and Jennifer Vickery.
Despite the roaring traffic and clicking cameras, “it was surprisingly quiet,” Oliveira said after the brief ceremony.
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