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 ...
gay civil-union couples are roaming Vermont's countryside sodomizing White House interns AS WE SPEAK!!
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.
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.
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.
So if I want a permit for a .50 cal gun, I can go there 24/7?
Please don't belittle those of us who are working hard to counter this movement of cultural nihilism.
Wait until sunrise. Then you'll see the locusts.
FGS
The first lesbian couple to marry in Massachusetts are twins......
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.
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.
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...:(
*Coughs*
I do NOT want to talk to my homosexual and gay-friendly acquaintances today/tomorrow. Grrr...
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.
Stocking up on tar, feathers, shotgun shells and shovels.
BUMP
Next thing you know, people will be applying to marry their mother-in-law, identical twin, pet...
At least it gives Teddy Kennedy an excuse to raise a glass.
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.
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