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'Father' To Marry 'Son' In Bucks County (PA) -- With Court's Blessing
Patch.com ^ | 20MAY2015 | Kara Seymour

Posted on 05/20/2015 7:30:45 PM PDT by Jack Hydrazine

This week, Bill Novak and Norman MacArthur will go from being father and son to a married couple.

Before you jump to conclusions, consider this: Novak and MacArthur are not father and son biologically. Rather, their relationship through adoption was solely a technicality to enable the rights they desperately wanted but were not legally able to attain as a married couple.

The same-sex couple, who have been together for more than 50 years, registered as domestic partners in New York City in 1994. After moving to Bucks County, they learned that Pennsylvania law does not recognize domestic partners and prohibits same sex marriages.

“The time came about to do estate planning,” MacArthur said. “We were told at that time ‘hell would freeze over before Pennsylvania approves same sex marriage’.”

They were advised by a lawyer that the only avenue to becoming legally related was through adoption. “It was the only legal method we could use in Pennsylvania to give underpinning to our relationship,” MacArthur said.

So in 2000, Novak adopted MacArthur. Both sets of their parents were already deceased, preventing another legal hurdle.

But still they dreamed of being married.

That dream was on the cusp of becoming a reality 15 years later, when the United States District Court declared unconstitutional Pennsylvania’s Marriage Laws prohibiting same-sex marriage.

But Novak and MacArthur, now in their 70s, faced another challenge: they were, in the eyes of Pennsylvania, father and son.

The pair’s Petition to Vacate Adoption Decree was granted on May 14, allowing them to marry. This is the first case in Pennsylvania history seeking to vacate an adoption to allow a same sex couple to marry, their lawyer Terry Clemons said.

Clemons said the approach of using adoption to gain rights was not uncommon around the turn of the century as same-sex couples were navigating estate planning and access to medical care.

Clemons, a founding partner of Doylestown-based Clemons, Richter & Reiss, P.C., successfully petitioned the Orphans Court of Bucks County on behalf of the couple. He said when the order was signed from the bench, the couple’s friends and family erupted in applause.

After years of having to hide behind a phony title in order to gain rights, Novak and MacArthur say they are overjoyed to be able to marry.

“We are ecstatic beyond belief. I feel an enormous sense of not only relief but freedom that we can finally do something in Pennsylvania that I’ve been dreaming of for years.”

And they’re wasting no time: the day after the Petition to Vacate Adoption Decree was approved, they applied for a marriage license, which MacArthur said was granted in 15 minutes.

As of Wednesday, MacArthur said the exact date the couple will make it official hasn’t been set but it will be soon. He said they’ll be married at the courthouse but will celebrate with family and friends at a reception later this summer.

The judge’s order will not only change MacArthur and Novak’s life, but will have an impact on many other same-sex couples in Pennsylvania, according to Clemons.

“Not only does it pave the way for this couple to obtain a marriage license, it is an important precedent for others who may be in the same position,” Clemons, Richter & Reiss said in a statement.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: Pennsylvania
KEYWORDS: homosexualagenda; insanity; pennsylvania
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To: Jack Hydrazine
Another nail in the coffin of our social order, our Freedoms under the Constitution and our once vibrant "Western Civilization."

"I am an American fighting man. I serve in the forces which guard my country and our way of life.
I am prepared to give my life in their defense."

21 posted on 05/20/2015 7:57:16 PM PDT by ConorMacNessa (HM/2 USN, 3/5 Marines RVN 1969 - St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in Battle!)
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To: max americana

So I guess next is gonna be brother/brother/dad/uncle 4-way queer polygamy. What the hell happened to this world? Things like this make me wish I was 90 and feeble rather than 30 and healthy.


22 posted on 05/20/2015 7:58:46 PM PDT by IluvmyKalashnikov
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To: Jack Hydrazine

The only sure thing that can be said about this affair is that there will be hell to pay by our country for this blasphemy.


23 posted on 05/20/2015 7:59:57 PM PDT by 353FMG (muzzies are a national security liability.)
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To: Poison Pill

The first gay marriage arguments were for tax reasons. Too bad it wasn’t a conservative gay couple, and rather than wanting to get married, they wanted taxes reduced for EVERYBODY. (Discrimination against gays and all for having to pay higher taxes.)


24 posted on 05/20/2015 8:00:02 PM PDT by 21twelve (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2185147/posts It is happening again.)
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To: reg45

Freedom of expression, y’all.


25 posted on 05/20/2015 8:01:16 PM PDT by 353FMG (muzzies are a national security liability.)
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To: Jack Hydrazine

America was founded by the best and brightest me of their time but is now run by the worst and lowest of our time.

The lunatics have taken over the nation and turned it into an asylum.

Just think about the low quality of many of the people in positions of leadership at all levels today.

Mayors like Bill deBlasio and Stephanie Rawlings-Blake.
Governors like Andrew Cuomo and Jerry Brown.
Senators like Harry Reid, Elzabeth Warren and Chuck Schumer.
Representatives like Nancy Pelosi, Hank Johnson, Maxine Waters and Sheila Jackson Lee.
Attorneys General Like Eric Holder, Loretta Lynch and Marilyn Mosby.
A man like Barack Obama in the presidency and a shyster crook like Hillary Clinton the front runner to replace him.
Supreme Court Justices like Ginsburg, Sotomayor and Kagen.

We have nowhere to go but up.


26 posted on 05/20/2015 8:01:46 PM PDT by Iron Munro (We may be paranoid but that doesn't mean they aren't really after us)
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To: IluvmyKalashnikov

Screw love triangles, soon we’re gonna have incestuous fag love quadrilaterals


27 posted on 05/20/2015 8:01:58 PM PDT by IluvmyKalashnikov
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To: IluvmyKalashnikov

I;m early 30’s, and pissed off man. I deal with these fruitcakes and fudgepackers in the my line of work every damn day. If it wasn’t for the money, I would go Patton on these ass clowns.


28 posted on 05/20/2015 8:02:19 PM PDT by max americana (fired liberals in our company last election, and I laughed while they cried (true story))
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To: Iron Munro
I hope that we have truly hit bottom and that we can rise through the scum now ringing the slough that has become American politics.

With the help of the LORD, we will prevail!

"I am an American fighting man. I serve in the forces which guard my country and our way of life.
I am prepared to give my life in their defense."

29 posted on 05/20/2015 8:07:08 PM PDT by ConorMacNessa (HM/2 USN, 3/5 Marines RVN 1969 - St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in Battle!)
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To: Jack Hydrazine

If marriage is no longer based on a procreative relationship, why can’t a father and son get married? I’m sure it would help a lot with estate planning, especially with a family business that would otherwise be destroyed by the taxes. The elites won’t like the loss of tax revenue but that is a very arbitrary objection.


30 posted on 05/20/2015 8:13:43 PM PDT by Flying Circus (God save us!)
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To: Iron Munro
We have nowhere to go but up.

I disagree. We have a lot farther to go down first, and we will.. That is even more frightening than where we are now.

31 posted on 05/20/2015 8:14:22 PM PDT by ChildOfThe60s (If you can remember the 60s, you weren't really there....)
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To: max americana

https://youtu.be/e0RbMxK4cVU


32 posted on 05/20/2015 8:15:06 PM PDT by Aut Pax Aut Bellum (Ever notice how a spiral goes faster as it nears the bottom?)
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To: Jack Hydrazine

PA people will be thrilled; thousand will come out for the ceremony.


33 posted on 05/20/2015 8:16:17 PM PDT by Theodore R. (Liberals keep winning; so the American people must now be all-liberal all the time.)
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To: Iron Munro

All of the above have considerable support from the “American” people.


34 posted on 05/20/2015 8:17:31 PM PDT by Theodore R. (Liberals keep winning; so the American people must now be all-liberal all the time.)
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To: 353FMG
there will be hell to pay by our country for this blasphemy.

A point the "American" people flatly reject

35 posted on 05/20/2015 8:18:24 PM PDT by Theodore R. (Liberals keep winning; so the American people must now be all-liberal all the time.)
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To: max americana

Amen, I’m enjoying the first amendment here.


36 posted on 05/20/2015 8:19:48 PM PDT by right way right
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To: Jack Hydrazine

37 posted on 05/20/2015 8:24:46 PM PDT by GraceG (Protect the Border from Illegal Aliens, Don't Protect Illegal Alien Boarders...)
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To: Jack Hydrazine
This song comes to mind when I read an outrageous story like this one.
38 posted on 05/20/2015 8:25:19 PM PDT by Heart-Rest ("Woe to those who call evil good and good evil!" Isaiah 5:20)
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To: Jack Hydrazine
I'm my own Grandpa

Youtube link

39 posted on 05/20/2015 8:27:15 PM PDT by FlJoePa
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To: GraceG

“That’s true. I did do the nasty in the pasty.”


40 posted on 05/20/2015 8:35:56 PM PDT by SJSAMPLE
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