In public celebrations and ceremonies, gay couples exchanged vows in
both states. Dozens of lesbian and homosexual couples began getting
hitched at the stroke of midnight in Minnesota, the largest Midwestern
state where it is now legal to do so. In the last New England state to allow same-sex marriage, weddings began at 8:30 a.m. in Rhode Island, when municipal offices opened.
The recent Supreme Court decision striking down portions of a law denying federal benefits to married homosexual and lesbian gay couples means they can petition for permanent residency.
"It was important for us that it be the first day," said one freshly married medical student. "It's a personal day for us, and it's also a great political victory."
The national homosexual and lesbian advocacy group calling itself Freedom to Marry now estimates that 30 percent of the U.S. population now lives in places where gay marriage is legal.
An estimated 1,000 people in Minneapolis packed into City Hall at midnight to celebrate 46 same-sex weddings officiated by Mayor R.T. Rybak. Several Hennepin County judges performed 21 more in the City Council's chambers.
Governor Mark Dayton proclaimed Aug. 1 to be "Freedom to Marry Day" in Minnesota. Public gatherings in Rhode Island were more low-key and small. Homosexual advocates said this was probably because so many nearby states already allow same-sex marriage.
Democratic Gov. Lincoln Chafee, who became one of the earliest prominent national supporters of legalizing homosexual and lesbain marriage when he was a Republican U.S. senator, planned to attend a state lawmaker's wedding later in the day. In addition, House Speaker Gordon Fox, who is gay, planned to officiate.
Alliance Defending Freedom, a Washington, D.C.-based group which defends marriage as between one man and one woman and opposes redefining the word to compel States to give a legal equivalency to gay couples who cohabit, advised municipal clerks they could ask a colleague to issue licenses to same-sex couples if they were opposed. There were no reports of that happening in either state.
Budget officials in Minnesota estimated that 5,000 gay couples would marry in the first year. Voters there rejected a constitutional ban on homosexual and lesbian marriage last fall and the Legislature this spring moved to make it legal.
Lawmakers in allegedly heavily 'Catholic' Rhode Island passed the law redefining marriage this spring after more than 16 years of efforts by homosexual and lesbian marriage equivalency activists.
The Catholic Church has not, cannot and will not, change its position concerning marriage as solely possible between one man and one woman. The statistic simply demonstrates the sad fact that many catholics either do not know what their own Church teaches or are in open defiance.
In fact, just like the massive movement in France, a major movement defending marriage as between one man and one woman - as well as defending the rights of children to have both a mother and a father - is being formed in the United States.
The members consider their position on Marriage as between one man and one woman as a matter of the Natural Moral Law and view their struggle as a human rights movement.