Grannies Become First Legal Gay Married Couple in New York

(AP) — Still in the glow of midnight marriages across New York, hundreds of gay couples were expected to marry on Sunday on the first full day that same-sex weddings were legal in the Empire State.

New York City alone was ready to host several hundred same-sex weddings, and clerks, judges and other officials in several cities around the state were opening their doors on a Sunday to cater to gay couples.
Judges were being posted in New York City clerks' offices on Sunday to officiate and to consider waiver requests to the state's mandatory 24-hour wait between issuing a license and a having ceremony. Couples without waivers can't wed until Monday or Tuesday, depending on whether their local clerks issue licenses Sunday.

Initially, New York City officials had projected that about 2,500 couples might show up at the city clerk's offices hoping to get married on Sunday, but by the time a 48-hour lottery had drawn to a close on Thursday, 823 couples had signed up — 59 more than the city had planned to accommodate. The city will perform ceremonies for all 823.

The first couples got married at the stroke of midnight Saturday in every corner of the state, from Niagara Falls to the capital in Albany to Long Island.

New York became the sixth, and largest, state to allow gay marriages last month, a highly anticipated vote that was viewed as a pivotal moment in the national gay rights movement and was expected to galvanize supporters and opponents alike.

Gay-rights activists Kitty Lambert and Cheryle Rudd were legally married the very first moment they could be during a midnight ceremony at Niagara Falls.

With a rainbow-lit Niagara Falls as a backdrop, Lambert, 54, and Rudd, 53, were among the first gay couples to tie the knot with the blessing of the state. The couple, both from Buffalo, smiled broadly as they exchanged traditional marriage vows, promising to love and cherish each other in sickness and in health. A crowd of several hundred people cheered as they were pronounced married and shared their first kiss.

"What an incredible night this was," said Lambert, who wore an electric blue satin gown with a sequined train for the midnight ceremony and carried a bouquet of blue hydrangeas. Rudd, who wore a white tuxedo with tails and white tennis shoes, said she felt "great relief" at being married because now she's "just like everyone else" and has the same rights.

"It feels great: I'm married," she said with an excited laugh.

Mayor Paul Dyster performed the ceremony, which was attended by some of the state lawmakers whose vote last month made it possible.

In Albany, Mayor Jerry Jennings performed marriages at 12:01 a.m. Sunday in the Common Council's chambers. A state Supreme Court judge waived the state-mandated 24-hour waiting period, Jennings said.
About 300 people packed the chambers for multiple ceremonies. Ariel Heintze and Kerry Doutrich, of Boulder, Colo., turned a long-planned visit to a friend into a reason to get a marriage license. Engaged three years, they'll marry later at the home of their friend, Jan Moyer, of Brunswick.

"It's absolutely historic," Doutrich said.

New York's vote to allow gay marriage provided fresh energy to the national drive for same-sex weddings. Advocates and opponents, many of whom reject same-sex marriage on religious grounds, said the New York vote, propelled by Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo, would invigorate both sides.

Protests were planned around the state for Sunday, including at the state Capitol.

In Niagara Falls, Lambert and Rudd chose Luna Island at the foot of the Falls for the site of their ceremony, following in the tradition of countless other couples who've been marrying there for more than a century. The Falls also will be the backdrop for a group wedding on Monday, with more than 40 couples planning to simultaneously marry.

On Long Island, Frank Fuertes and Patrick Simeone were married — again — in North Hempstead, just east of New York City. Simeone, a stylist on Long Island's north shore, said he's only sorry it took New York so long to recognize same-sex marriage.
Kinder, more tender, more loved."

Romney: the first candidate who refuse gay marriage

(AP) — Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney's campaign said Tuesday that he will not sign a conservative Iowa Christian group's far-reaching pledge opposing gay marriage, making him the first Republican presidential candidate to reject it.
Two of Romney's rivals for the Republican nomination, Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, have signed the The Family Leader's 14-point pledge, which calls on the candidates to denounce same-sex marriage rights, pornography, same-sex military accommodations and forms of Islamic law.
The group struck that language and apologized after black ministers complained, but it said it stands by the rest of the document.
Andrea Saul, a spokeswoman for Romney, told The Associated Press in a written statement Tuesday that Romney "strongly supports traditional marriage," but that the oath "contained references and provisions that were undignified and inappropriate for a presidential campaign."
Bachmann and Santorum have been campaigning hard to court the influential social conservatives in Iowa, which holds the nation's first caucuses. Romney's rejection of the pledge reflects his diminished focus on winning Iowa, where he spent $10 million during his 2008 presidential campaign only to finish second.
None of the other GOP presidential hopefuls, including former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich, have said whether they will sign the pledge or not.
Romney, who supported rights for gay couples in Massachusetts, was criticized in Iowa by some Iowa social conservatives during his 2008 campaign, when he finished second in the caucuses after aggressively courting Christian conservatives.
The Family Leader, an organization formed last year and positioning itself to be an influential player in the 2012 caucuses, said Tuesday they stand by the 14 policy positions listed under the promise to "defend and to uphold the institution of marriage as only between one man and one woman."
The points include the promise to be faithful to their spouses, enforce the federal Defense of Marriage Act and support a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.
The group said signing the oath is a condition of winning its endorsement before the caucuses.
"We are standing firm that the 14 points of the marriage vow are right on target and we are creating higher standards for the presidential candidates," said Julie Summa, director of marketing and public outreach for The Family Leader. Gay marriage has been a volatile issue in Iowa in recent years, and came to a head in 2009 when the Iowa Supreme Court struck down the state's statutory ban on gay marriage, making same-sex marriages legal.
Republican presidential candidate Jon Huntsman is not campaigning in Iowa, citing his past opposition to farm subsidies, although he also supported rights for same-sex couples as governor of Utah. Huntsman campaign aides said Tuesday the former U.S. ambassador to China is declining to sign any pledges as part of his campaign.