Same-sex marriages begin in nation’s capital

WASHINGTON — As a cellist and soloist performed Billy Joel’s “Just the Way You Are,” Darlene Garner and Candy Holmes walked down the aisle Tuesday morning and became among the first gay couples to legally marry in the District of Columbia.

Mayor Adrian M. Fenty congratulated
Garner and Holmes and two other couples, who wed at the headquarters of
the Human Rights Campaign, a civil rights group focusing on gay,
bisexual and lesbian rights.

“The six of you here today represent what this country is about,” Fently said. “A great step forward for equality.”

Couples had planned weddings at churches, the offices of gay rights groups and the courthouse.

The courthouse typically has four to six weddings a day, but over the next several weeks it is expecting 10 to 12 a day, The Associated Press
reported. The court’s official marriage booklet has been updated so
that the ceremony will end by pronouncing the couple “legally married”
as opposed to “husband and wife.”

The district’s decision to allow same-sex marriage
is a victory for gay and lesbian rights groups after successive defeats
of legislation in New York, Maine, Texas and the upholding of Proposition 8 in California last year.

Gay marriages have been legalized in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Iowa, Connecticut and Vermont.

Last month, Maryland Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler announced that the state will recognize same-sex marriages from out of state until the Legislature or courts decide otherwise.

“When that happened, it was like the stars suddenly aligned with each other,” said Garner, 61, of Laurel. Md.,
who said she would have thought about moving into the district if
Gansler had not made that announcement. “We want to live in a
jurisdiction that will honor us equally.”

Already, there is anecdotal evidence that a number of same-sex couples living in the district’s Virginia suburbs are thinking of making the short move into the district or its Maryland suburbs.

Both Human Rights Campaign and Equality Maryland, a
civil rights group for lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender
residents, said they have received e-mails inquiring about making the
move.

“Maryland
state agencies are looking into their policies right now to accommodate
the changes that come with the attorney general’s announcement,” said Morgan Meneses-Sheets, executive director of Equality Maryland. “But it takes time.”

On a federal level, gay and lesbian activists say there will not be full equality until Congress repeals the Defense of Marriage Act of 1996 — legislation signed into law by President Bill Clinton preserving the heterosexual definition of marriage and reserving the
right of individual states not to recognize out of state same-sex
marriages.

While states that recognize out of state same-sex marriages, such as Maryland,
can tweak policy applying taxation and health benefits policies for
heterosexual couples on same-sex couples, federal agencies are limited
by the Defense of Marriage Act.

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