02 Jan Maryland holds seven gay marriages to mark arrival of new year
Seven gay couples rang in the New Year in Maryland with wedding bells early Tuesday, marking the first wave of nuptials since voters in the state backed the legalization of same-sex marriage. The couples were pronounced lawfully married at the 12.30am ceremony on New Year’s Day in Baltimore’s City Hall.
Baltimore mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake officiated at the wedding of the first of the couples, 68-year-old James Scales and 60-year-old William Tasker. The couple have been together for 35 years. The mayor joked that everyone had come to celebrate a relationship that began many years ago – “and I mean that, many years ago.” Soon after the November vote legalizing gay marriage, Scales, a long-time city employee, asked the mayor to marry the two.
The mayor’s press secretary, Ian Brennan, said the mayor “wanted to make a statement to tell gay, lesbian, transgendered couples that they’re welcome here”.
Voters in Maryland, Maine and Washington state approved same-sex unions on election day, becoming the only states to pass such a measure by popular vote. Nine of the 50 US states and Washington DC have legalized gay marriage. Thirty-one states have passed constitutional amendments banning it.
Rawlings-Blake called the 6 November vote “a remarkable achievement for Maryland” and welcomed friends and families of the couples to witness history at the early morning ceremony. “We are excited to open City Hall to host some of the first wedding ceremonies in our great state,” she said.
Public opinion has been shifting in favor of allowing same-sex marriage. A Pew Research Center survey from October found that 49% of Americans favored allowing gay marriage, with 40% opposed. In May, Barack Obama became the first US president to say he believed same-sex couples should be allowed to get married.
The US Supreme Court has agreed to review two challenges to federal and state laws that define marriage as a union between a man and a woman. The nation’s highest court said last month it would review a case against a federal law that denies married same-sex couples the federal benefits that heterosexual couples receive. It also will look at a challenge to California’s ban on gay marriage, known as Proposition 8, which voters narrowly approved in 2008.
Washington state’s law legalizing same-sex unions took effect on 9 December; Maine followed on 29 December.