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 ...
Let's get married.
that'll give me nightmares
I am anxious to see if this will be end of the world as so manyhave predicted.
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
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.
And everyone just knew it would be San Francisco.
God, have Mercy on us.
A whole bunch of QUEERING going on in MASS.Who is going to be the mom and who is going to be the papa.
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.
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).
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.
Sorry moderators. I couldn't resist.
no no, The Pill was the end of the world for these types
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.
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