Gay Couples Get Ready to Wed in California

On Monday, gay and lesbian couples celebrated the California Supreme Court’s recent lifting of the ban on gay marriage by, well, getting married. Tuesday is expected to be a bigger day, though, for devoted duos to make it official, as that’s the day when most California counties are slated to start giving gay couples marriage licenses.

AP via Google News:

Local officials will be required to issue licenses that have the words “Party A” and “Party B” where “bride” and “groom” used to be.

A conservative Christian legal group asked a state appeals court to block the weddings, but the move was given little chance of success. California’s high court rejected a previous request for a postponement.

In San Francisco, where Mayor Gavin Newsom helped launch the series of lawsuits that led the court to strike down California’s one-man, one-woman marriage laws, workers got ready for the crush of couples by setting up a satellite office in the lobby of City Hall.

Newsom planned to preside at the wedding of lesbian rights activists Del Martin, 87, and Phyllis Lyon, 84, the only couple scheduled to receive a marriage license in the city on Monday. As of Friday, nearly 620 couples had booked appointments to obtain licenses at San Francisco City Hall over the next 10 days.

Clerks elsewhere around the state reported nowhere near as high a demand but said they were training volunteer marriage commissioners to officiate at civil ceremonies in anticipation of a surge in business.

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AP photo / Tony Avelar, file

Sharon Papo, second from left, and partner Amber Weiss make an appointment to obtain a marriage license at San Francisco City Hall last month. Amanda Lee, second from right, and partner Megan Burritt share a kiss as they wait their turn.