Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Same sex couples receive marriage applications in Massachusetts
San Francisco Chronicle ^ | Sunday, May 16, 2004 | KEN MAGUIRE

Posted on 05/16/2004 10:00:06 PM PDT by Cracker72

(05-16) 21:43 PDT CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) --

City clerks began handing out marriage-license applications to gay couples just after midnight Monday, making Massachusetts the first state in the nation to legalize same-sex unions and the United States just one of four countries in the world where homosexuals can legally wed.

The first couple to begin filling out the paperwork was Marcia Hams, 56, and her partner, Susan Shepherd, 52, of Cambridge. They showed up a full 24 hours ahead of time to stake out the first spot in line to get the nation's first state-sanctioned gay marriage applications.

"I'm shaking so much," Hams said as she filled out the application while sitting at a table across from a city official. "I could collapse at this point."

Outside, throughout the day and into the night, the atmosphere was festive -- complete with a giant wedding cake -- as officials in the liberal bastion of Cambridge seized the earliest possible moment to begin the process of granting same-sex couples the historic right at the center of legal battles nationwide.

By late Sunday night, police estimated that more than 5,000 people had descended outside city hall, cheering and clapping as it opened its doors to let more than 260 couples inside just ahead of the midnight deadline. Many in the crowd were family and friends who wanted to join in the festive atmosphere. There were also scores of reporters, and a few protesters stood across the street.

The state's highest court had ruled gays and lesbians must be allowed to marry beginning Monday, and some of the couples in line planned to head to the courts as soon as they opened later in the morning to seek waivers allowing them to wed before the usual three-day waiting period.

Massachusetts was thrust into the center of a nationwide debate on gay marriage when the state's Supreme Judicial Court issued its narrow 4-3 ruling in November that gays and lesbians had a right under the state constitution to wed.

In the days leading up to Monday's deadline, opponents looked to the federal courts for help in overturning the Supreme Judicial Court's ruling. On Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to intervene.

(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...


TOPICS: Breaking News; Culture/Society; Government; US: Massachusetts
KEYWORDS: assachussetts; gay; gaymarriage; homosexual; homosexualagenda; marriage
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-5051-100101-150151-158 next last

1 posted on 05/16/2004 10:00:07 PM PDT by Cracker72
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: tiamat

Let's get married.


2 posted on 05/16/2004 10:00:47 PM PDT by cyborg
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Cracker72; cyborg

3 posted on 05/16/2004 10:02:26 PM PDT by NYC GOP Chick ("If I could shoot like that, I would still be in the NBA" -- Bill Clinton, circa 1995)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: NYC GOP Chick

that'll give me nightmares


4 posted on 05/16/2004 10:02:48 PM PDT by cyborg
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: cyborg

5 posted on 05/16/2004 10:04:22 PM PDT by NYC GOP Chick ("If I could shoot like that, I would still be in the NBA" -- Bill Clinton, circa 1995)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Cracker72

I am anxious to see if this will be end of the world as so manyhave predicted.


6 posted on 05/16/2004 10:04:34 PM PDT by Jeff Gordon (LWS - Legislating While Stupid. Someone should make this illegal.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Cracker72

This is a suicide backlash issue for Kerry...I can't believe they let this run...

Flyover country is gonna backlash big time.

FAGGOTS ARE NOT NORMAL


7 posted on 05/16/2004 10:10:16 PM PDT by antaresequity (This is not the "War on Terror", Islam is the common denominator)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Jeff Gordon
As has been pointed out, in those societies that are currently doing this, marriage itself is dying out. That is having a serious impact on society.
8 posted on 05/16/2004 10:15:41 PM PDT by Clock King
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

Genesis
Chapter 19
1
The two angels reached Sodom in the evening, as Lot was sitting at the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he got up to greet them; and bowing down with his face to the ground,
2
1 he said, "Please, gentlemen, come aside into your servant's house for the night, and bathe your feet; you can get up early to continue your journey." But they replied, "No, we shall pass the night in the town square."
3
He urged them so strongly, however, that they turned aside to his place and entered his house. He prepared a meal for them, baking cakes without leaven, and they dined.
4
Before they went to bed, all the townsmen of Sodom, both young and old--all the people to the last man--closed in on the house.
5
They called to Lot and said to him, "Where are the men who came to your house tonight? Bring them out to us that we may have intimacies with them."
6
Lot went out to meet them at the entrance. When he had shut the door behind him,
7
he said, "I beg you, my brothers, not to do this wicked thing.
8
I have two daughters who have never had intercourse with men. Let me bring them out to you, and you may do to them as you please. But don't do anything to these men, for you know they have come under the shelter of my roof."
9
They replied, "Stand back! This fellow," they sneered, "came here as an immigrant, and now he dares to give orders! We'll treat you worse than them!" With that, they pressed hard against Lot, moving in closer to break down the door.
10
But his guests put out their hands, pulled Lot inside with them, and closed the door;
11
2 at the same time they struck the men at the entrance of the house, one and all, with such a blinding light that they were utterly unable to reach the doorway.
12
3 Then the angels said to Lot: "Who else belongs to you here? Your sons (sons-in-law) and your daughters and all who belong to you in the city--take them away from it!
13
We are about to destroy this place, for the outcry reaching the LORD against those in the city is so great that he has sent us to destroy it."
14
4 So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who had contracted marriage with his daughters. "Get up and leave this place," he told them; "the LORD is about to destroy the city." But his sons-in-law thought he was joking.
15
As dawn was breaking, the angels urged Lot on, saying, "On your way! Take with you your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away in the punishment of the city."
16
When he hesitated, the men, by the LORD'S mercy, seized his hand and the hands of his wife and his two daughters and led them to safety outside the city.
17
As soon as they had been brought outside, he was told: "Flee for your life! Don't look back or stop anywhere on the Plain. Get off to the hills at once, or you will be swept away."
18
"Oh, no, my lord!" replied Lot.
19
"You have already thought enough of your servant to do me the great kindness of intervening to save my life. But I cannot flee to the hills to keep the disaster from overtaking me, and so I shall die.
20
5 Look, this town ahead is near enough to escape to. It's only a small place. Let me flee there--it's a small place, isn't it?--that my life may be saved."
21
"Well, then," he replied, "I will also grant you the favor you now ask. I will not overthrow the town you speak of.
22
Hurry, escape there! I cannot do anything until you arrive there." That is why the town is called Zoar.
23
The sun was just rising over the earth as Lot arrived in Zoar;
24
at the same time the LORD rained down sulphurous fire upon Sodom and Gomorrah (from the LORD out of heaven).
25
6 He overthrew those cities and the whole Plain, together with the inhabitants of the cities and the produce of the soil.
26
But Lot's wife looked back, and she was turned into a pillar of salt.
27
Early the next morning Abraham went to the place where he had stood in the LORD'S presence.
28
7 As he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and the whole region of the Plain, he saw dense smoke over the land rising like fumes from a furnace.
29
Thus it came to pass: when God destroyed the Cities of the Plain, he was mindful of Abraham by sending Lot away from the upheaval by which God overthrew the cities where Lot had been living.

9 posted on 05/16/2004 10:17:46 PM PDT by Polycarp IV (PRO-LIFE orthodox Catholic--without exception, without compromise, without apology. Any questions?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Cracker72

And everyone just knew it would be San Francisco.


10 posted on 05/16/2004 10:18:19 PM PDT by ladyinred (Torture is what happened to Nick Berg!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Cracker72
City clerks began handing out marriage-license applications to gay couples just after midnight Monday, making Massachusetts the first state in the nation to legalize same-sex unions and the United States just one of four countries in the world where homosexuals can legally wed.

God, have Mercy on us.

11 posted on 05/16/2004 10:19:13 PM PDT by Polycarp IV (PRO-LIFE orthodox Catholic--without exception, without compromise, without apology. Any questions?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Clock King

A whole bunch of QUEERING going on in MASS.Who is going to be the mom and who is going to be the papa.


12 posted on 05/16/2004 10:20:57 PM PDT by jocko12
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: Cracker72

Thank god, I decided not to go in the direction of central square today. Shudder. I can't believe this is happening. It just seems so wrong on so many levels. And it seems even more wrong, that the city is celebrating this like its the best thing ever. Like there's no controversy; no judicial fiat. A big slap in the face to people with traditional values. And no fancy celebration and cake for the normal marriages. I'm surprised I don't see fireworks outside my dorm window. It's stuff like this that would make me pass up Harvard Law and MIT or the Kennedy school for grad school because that means 4 more years at least in Cambridge.


13 posted on 05/16/2004 10:21:42 PM PDT by the right side jedi
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Cracker72
Any Freepers going to be there to give a blow-by-blow account of this momentous occasion...?
14 posted on 05/16/2004 10:26:52 PM PDT by freebilly (Vote Kerry-- 1 Billion Muslims Can't Be Wrong....)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: All
The real question is how long before they sue in federal court to force all other states to recognize fagot marriage.

I say less than a week. I'm sure the paper work is already prepared and will be filed as soon as the morons finish their (I better not say it).

15 posted on 05/16/2004 10:29:53 PM PDT by COEXERJ145
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: Cracker72

Where does the members of the Mass Supreme Court (Supreme Council) live? I was thinking of going out there this fall, I want to take my turn pissing on their front doors. They pissed on us, we should reciprocate.


16 posted on 05/16/2004 10:29:55 PM PDT by azsportsterman
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: azsportsterman

Sorry moderators. I couldn't resist.


17 posted on 05/16/2004 10:30:48 PM PDT by azsportsterman
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: Jeff Gordon
I am anxious to see if this will be end of the world as so manyhave predicted.

no no, The Pill was the end of the world for these types

18 posted on 05/16/2004 10:31:10 PM PDT by gawd
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: Jeff Gordon
I am anxious to see if this will be end of the world as so manyhave predicted.

I'm wondering what they'll be saying in two years, when absolutely nothing horrible has happened.

Weren't people claiming that chaos would erupt in the wake of Civil Unions in Vermont? What ever happened to the "Take Back Vermont" movement? What's the worst thing going on in Vermont right now? Howard Dean?
19 posted on 05/16/2004 10:32:49 PM PDT by Dimensio (Join the Monthly Internet Flash Mob: http://tinyurl.com/3xj9m)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: Dimensio; Jeff Gordon
I'm wondering what they'll be saying in two years, when absolutely nothing horrible has happened.

What is this, the return of "Saddam was not an imminent danger to us"? When people talk about chaos, they aren't talking about a sudden explosion. They are talking about over decades and generations.

20 posted on 05/16/2004 10:37:20 PM PDT by NutCrackerBoy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

To: Dimensio
Weren't people claiming that chaos would erupt in the wake of Civil Unions in Vermont?

gay civil-union couples are roaming Vermont's countryside sodomizing White House interns AS WE SPEAK!!

21 posted on 05/16/2004 10:47:05 PM PDT by gawd
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

To: gawd

Marriage is changing. As a result, children will be more and more likely to grow up without a married mother and father. That is not good.


22 posted on 05/16/2004 10:50:14 PM PDT by NutCrackerBoy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | View Replies]

To: NutCrackerBoy

Not to mention higher insurance premiums for families due to the huge increase of homosexuals receiving partner benefits, and the high incidence of expensive diseases in homosexuals.


23 posted on 05/16/2004 10:51:16 PM PDT by Judith Anne (HOW ARE WE EVER GOING TO CLEAN UP ALL THIS MESS?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: Dimensio

Looking up into the sky at 2:15am EST, Monday 5/17/04... still no signs of the sky falling, no signs of flood or famine, not even ONE crack of thunder.


24 posted on 05/16/2004 11:17:55 PM PDT by richmwill
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

To: richmwill

So if I want a permit for a .50 cal gun, I can go there 24/7?


25 posted on 05/16/2004 11:21:38 PM PDT by Hillarys Gate Cult (Proud member of the right wing extremist Neanderthals.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

To: richmwill
Looking up into the sky at 2:15am EST, Monday 5/17/04... still no signs of the sky falling, no signs of flood or famine, not even ONE crack of thunder.

Please don't belittle those of us who are working hard to counter this movement of cultural nihilism.

26 posted on 05/16/2004 11:22:17 PM PDT by NutCrackerBoy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

To: richmwill

Wait until sunrise. Then you'll see the locusts.


27 posted on 05/16/2004 11:23:58 PM PDT by Dimensio (Join the Monthly Internet Flash Mob: http://tinyurl.com/3xj9m)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

To: Cracker72
Scanning through the thread, I notice several posters that might feel more at home somewhere else. DU wannabes?

FGS

28 posted on 05/16/2004 11:44:53 PM PDT by ForGod'sSake (ABCNNBCBS: An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

Comment #29 Removed by Moderator

To: Cracker72
Proof that same-sex marriage automatically leads to incest-

The first lesbian couple to marry in Massachusetts are twins......


30 posted on 05/17/2004 12:24:49 AM PDT by Cracker72
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

Comment #31 Removed by Moderator

To: Dimensio; gawd; richmwill

I know you're all having a good old time scorning those who see the destruction of moral absolutes - the destruction of the natural family, as a harbinger of evil. I guess you like the idea of recreational sex being completely equated with marriage, or even lauded as superior. It makes it easier to tomcat around, for sure.

But consider this: approximately 33% of the babies born in the US are currently bastards. Unmarried parents. Among black babies it's over 70%. Just consider it. No mother and father, just a mother, and maybe a boyfriend who hangs around for a while.

Do you think a stable civilization can exist with no stable families?

There's only one right answer to that question.


32 posted on 05/17/2004 12:41:41 AM PDT by little jeremiah (Moral decay leads to anarchy which leads to totalitarianism.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

To: Cracker72

I, generally, don't care what Gays do with thier time or thier lives. But, for whatever they will do, it seems they lack political awareness for anything but thier own precious cause.

In general, they are not politically savvy, and they are pushing thier so-called "rights" beyond what the electorate will stomach in the short term.

Massachussets is liberal insofar as it beneifits the hand wringing politicos and those on the receiving end of those benefits. But, the general population has been asleep at the wheel on this topic. They will be awakened Monday morning to thier own negligence, and they will not like what they've become; the national example of extremism. That, when most of the people I know from Massachussets are quite conservative on family issues.

Gays could have had all the rights afforded to straights witout making a scene, and nobody would've cared that much. Now, theyre creating a inner party backlash that will, mark my words, drive more conservative minded democrats away from the table.


33 posted on 05/17/2004 12:43:52 AM PDT by Greenpees (Coulda Shoulda Woulda)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: *Homosexual Agenda; EdReform; scripter; GrandMoM; backhoe; Yehuda; Clint N. Suhks; saradippity; ...

Homosexual Agenda Ping - Sick news, we knew it was coming, hope a lot of people get angry and start fighting. I was hoping that some kind of legal or legislative something-or-other could have been done to hold it. TGIDLIM.*

Notice the thread - a lot of weirdness coming out of the woodwork. What are they so happy about? Makes you wonder.

Let me know if anyone wants on/off this pinglist.

*Thank God I Don't Live In Massachusetts.

But wait - CA is just as bad...:(


34 posted on 05/17/2004 12:47:38 AM PDT by little jeremiah (Moral decay leads to anarchy which leads to totalitarianism.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: little jeremiah
Well, if things go half as badly as I expect, then God won't need to judge the nation. We'll do it perfectly well on out OWN.

*Coughs*

I do NOT want to talk to my homosexual and gay-friendly acquaintances today/tomorrow. Grrr...

35 posted on 05/17/2004 12:58:38 AM PDT by Luircin (Saved by grace, only grace, purely grace, and very insistent grace)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 34 | View Replies]

To: Luircin

Have you read "The Death of Right and Wrong" by Tammy Bruce? Or anything by her? If not, do a FR search, there must be some articles by her. Or try Googling. I've read articles she's written, but not her book, which I should do. You probably know she's a homosexual, but conservative, and opposes the radical (how many support it, though?) "gay" agenda. If you haven't read her writing, you would probably really like it and it would give you some arguments for your friends/acquaintances that it would be hard for them to oppose.


36 posted on 05/17/2004 1:11:37 AM PDT by little jeremiah (Moral decay leads to anarchy which leads to totalitarianism.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 35 | View Replies]

To: Cracker72
Can't wait for them to try this in rural VA.

Stocking up on tar, feathers, shotgun shells and shovels.


BUMP

37 posted on 05/17/2004 3:58:56 AM PDT by tm22721 (May the UN rest in peace)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Polycarp IV

Next thing you know, people will be applying to marry their mother-in-law, identical twin, pet...


38 posted on 05/17/2004 4:00:06 AM PDT by Tabi Katz
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: the right side jedi

At least it gives Teddy Kennedy an excuse to raise a glass.


39 posted on 05/17/2004 4:01:35 AM PDT by Tabi Katz
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: All

I'm very curious on the type of blood tests they have to take....anyone know? I know me and my husband had to have them.


40 posted on 05/17/2004 4:14:36 AM PDT by jhw61
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 39 | View Replies]

To: Tabi Katz
Kerry and Kennedy in 1971: "First let's undermine the US in Vietnam. Then we can go for gay marriage. When you get to be Pres. JFK-lite, there will be no end to how much of America we can destroy."
41 posted on 05/17/2004 4:21:50 AM PDT by jrlc
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 39 | View Replies]

To: Polycarp IV

God is a just God. If He destroyed two cities for this abomination, He must also judge this nation.


42 posted on 05/17/2004 4:47:10 AM PDT by defendingright
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: Cracker72

On Fox & Friends now. The les can not hold up against E.D.


43 posted on 05/17/2004 4:49:34 AM PDT by mathluv (Protect my grandchildren's future. Vote for Bush/Cheney '04.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: richmwill

God is not mocked.


44 posted on 05/17/2004 4:49:36 AM PDT by defendingright
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

To: Cracker72
Civil marriage is about imposing obligations, not granting rights. Society needs to impose obligations in order to protect widows and orphans and abandoned children. Without the imposition of obligations on spouses, society is left with the cost of raising children and caring for impoverished spouses.

In order to accomplish marriage for gays, the debate had to be changed from establishing obligations to rights. The subject went from the imposition of obligations to the granting of rights. In a nation that prides itself on equal rights, this reversal has been immensely successful in making the argument that gays should be granted the same rights as heteros.

In fact, its been so successful the religious right and all conservatives have accepted the premise and have been suckered into making the argument be one of rights. When they do all they can use to stop it is to invoke God to a godless world.

However, the redefining of the reason for state involvement has a dangerous and is eventually lethal to the concept of the obligations of marriage. Because marriage will be heretofore a concept that grants rights to the parties and not obligations, the laws and the court orders will begin to reflect this change. The final act of this play will be that impoverished spouses that get abandoned will not get as much support from the state as before and more children's needs will have to be met by the state.

Accompanying the slide caused by redefining marriage as a system of rights will come the property and income battles in courts by couples who are not dependent on each other and who have no children. This will be enhanced by the existence of the precedence of cases which gays will be bring forth. Their cases will be mostly concerned with dividing property and most likely determining who by virtue of having earned the property are most entitled to it. In other words, rights not obligations.

The result of this is we will move farther away from the concept that spouses are responsible for the children and their spouse if a marriage terminates. In short, the losers will be the the weakest members of the family and by extension the society as a whole which will be forced to pick up the pieces.
45 posted on 05/17/2004 5:18:07 AM PDT by VRWC_minion
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Polycarp IV

That is exactly what I have been thinking all morning while trying to hang on to the Word of God. This country has made the turning point, Sodom and Gomorrah. Heaven help us.


46 posted on 05/17/2004 5:36:41 AM PDT by rep-always (Come Lord Jesus!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: cyborg

cyborg wrote:


Let's get married.




ROFLMAO!

You just made me spew coffee on my keyboard......


47 posted on 05/17/2004 5:38:40 AM PDT by tiamat ("Just a Bronze-Age Gal, Trapped in a Techno World!")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: jrlc

Missing from this picture: Jane Fonda and a bottle of whiskey.


48 posted on 05/17/2004 5:40:42 AM PDT by Tabi Katz
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 41 | View Replies]

To: All

We are being shown once again that we are not a representative republic at all, but an oligarchy. The left, as it has since the 1950's, simply imposes its desired doctrines on the public by judicial fiat.

Gay marriage couldn't pass at the ballot box, no problem... The yahoos vote to deny illegals rights to raid the public treasury, no problem...The same idiots vote to make English the official language of the nation, no problem...They laugh at us. They mock us. But someday they will not be able to mock any more. The Lord is in the Heavens. Have no fear. It may be as the days of Sodom. But their destruction is sure.

This nation is a fraud, and we deserve what comes of this evil.


49 posted on 05/17/2004 5:41:33 AM PDT by Luke21 (Christ is wonderful.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 45 | View Replies]

To: Cracker72

They look like Roger Ebert.


50 posted on 05/17/2004 5:44:53 AM PDT by Monty22
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 30 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-5051-100101-150151-158 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson