Some Good News: America's First Legal Gay Marriage Ceremony Performed In Maine

[StringJunky]

America's got it's first black president and now the people of Maine have allowed the first gay marriages. The gun problem will take a while longer but it's getting there in other areas.

 

(Reuters) - The first gay and lesbian couples to wed under Maine's new same-sex marriage law exchanged vows early on Saturday in a series of spare but joyous civil ceremonies held shortly after midnight.

"We finally feel equal and happy to be living in Maine," an exuberant Steven Bridges, 42, said shortly after he and his newly wedded husband, Michael Snell, 53, became the first couple at City Hall in Maine's largest town to tie the knot.

 

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/12/29/us-usa-gaymarriage-maine-idUSBRE8BS02N20121229

 

After the recent tragedies, this is a ray of light that keeps my faith that, in the end, America does the right.thing. 31 states are still stuck in the dark though demanding only heterosexuals may marry but the snowball will eventually become an avalanche.

[iNow]

"Americans can always be counted on to do the right thing...after they have exhausted all other possibilities."

[StringJunky]

"Americans can always be counted on to do the right thing...after they have exhausted all other possibilities."

 

You know your countrymen well! All that really matters is that it has started. Your sentiment was no doubt echoed the same here in the UK originally but it is not surprising really because it is, at first, a step into the unknown.

 

This says much for the people of Maine though:

 

Maine, Maryland and Washington state became the first three US states to extend marriage rights to same-sex couples by popular vote with passage of ballot initiatives on November 6. But Maine was the only one where voters did so entirely on their own, without state legislators precipitating a referendum by acting first.

 

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/3rd-US-state-witnesses-its-first-same-sex-marriages/articleshow/17814449.cms

Edited December 30, 2012 by StringJunky

[Dekan]

In normal traditional "straight" marriages, bridesmaids accompany the happy blushing (female) wife-to-be.

 

But in these new gay marriages, there don't seem to be any "bridesboys" accompanying the male wife.

 

Why is that?

 

 

[ydoaPs]

America's got it's first black president and now the people of Maine have allowed the first gay marriages.

 

Maine wasn't the first.

[iNow]

In normal traditional "straight" marriages, bridesmaids accompany the happy blushing (female) wife-to-be. But in these new gay marriages, there don't seem to be any "bridesboys" accompanying the male wife.

Your premise is broken. Prove that there are no male maids of honor when same sex marriages occur. A single photo to the contrary destroys the foundation of your point... A single photo with a group of men standing along each side of two males getting married or a single photo with a group of women standing along each side of two females getting married. Should I go find like 20 of them to show you just how profoundly ignorant your point really is, and how your attempt at snark and subtle homophobia has failed miserably?

[StringJunky]

 

Maine wasn't the first.

 

Where and when was the first?

[Dekan]

Inow, that attempt to shift the burden of proof is unworthy of you!

 

Can you show a photo of a gay marriage with young male "maids of honor" accompanying the ceremony.

 

Rhetorical question, cos you can't.

 

I dunno what's happening to the United States of America. Gay marriages? The Chinese must be laughing at you, as they prepare to take over the world.

 

Please get a grip.

Edited December 30, 2012 by Dekan

[dimreepr]

Seriously Dekan just accept the inow initiation to SFN, we all have to accept the destruction of an ill considered post by him; it’s a rite of passage. Just a cursory glance at ‘google images’ shows many examples of what you attempt to disavow. Homophobia is unworthy of a scientific mind.

[uncool]

Inow, that attempt to shift the burden of proof is unworthy of you!

 

Can you show a photo of a gay marriage with young male "maids of honor" accompanying the ceremony.

Yes, I can. Google image search it. http://www.georgenick.co.uk/Wedding.htm (search for the word "party").

Rhetorical question, cos you can't.

Actually, I can. One of my friends was a man of honor at a gay wedding.

I dunno what's happening to the United States of America. Gay marriages? The Chinese must be laughing at you, as they prepare to take over the world.

 

Please get a grip.

Get one yourself.

 

I'm guessing that you're biased based on all of the weddings that you've seen in the media - which are generally the first ones done, done right as soon as they were legally allowed to do so, rather than

[ydoaPs]

Inow, that attempt to shift the burden of proof is unworthy of you!

YOU made the claim, so the burden started with you; there was no shift.

 

Seriously Dekan just accept the inow initiation to SFN, we all have to accept the destruction of an ill considered post by him; it’s a rite of passage. Just a cursory glance at ‘google images’ shows many examples of what you attempt to disavow. Homophobia is unworthy of a scientific mind.

 

That darn iNow requiring posts to follow the rules of rational discourse on a Science Forum. How unthinkable!

 

 

Where and when was the first?

 

 

Massachusetts has been performing same-sex marriages since 2004.

[iNow]

Posters above have already more than handily shown the ignorance of Dekan and dimreepr's positions [EDIT] I misread the last part of dimreepr's post. This comment should only apply to Dekan [END EDIT], so I'll just move on to correct this:

Massachusetts has been performing same-sex marriages since 2004.

The first gay marriage in the US (on record) was actually in September 1971 in Minnesota. The link below shows a more complete timeline:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_same-sex_marriage

Edited December 30, 2012 by iNow

[dimreepr]

Hmmm a neg rep point, I wonder where that came from, no matter, way overdue no doubt. I deserve it.

[ydoaPs]

Posters above have already more than handily shown the ignorance of Dekan and dimreepr's positions, so I'll just move on to correct this:

 

 

The first gay marriage in the US (on record) was actually in September 1971 in Minnesota. The link below shows a more complete timeline:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_same-sex_marriage

 

My bad.

[iNow]

Hmmm a neg rep point, I wonder where that came from, no matter, way overdue no doubt. I deserve it.

 

Just to be clear, it wasn't from me. Cheers.

[ydoaPs]

 

Just to be clear, it wasn't from me. Cheers.

 

It was from me. Hi, dimreeper! Hostility towards rational discussion gets a neg rep from me. It's one thing to not know how to have rational discourse; it's another thing altogether to actively oppose it.

 

If something can be destroyed by facts and rationality, then it should be.

[dimreepr]

Just to be clear I was actually in support of you just bad punctuation.

yoadPs fair enough given how my initial post reads.

[imatfaal]

Just to be clear I was actually in support of you just bad punctuation.

 

yoadPs fair enough given how my initial post reads.

Don't worry about it. I read it in the way it was intended - rather than in the way it was actually written!

 

And you should do the search - the smiles and joy shining out from hundreds of photos should lighten anyone's day and convince any fence-sitters