MILWAUKEE (AP) — Dozens of gay couples got married at
courthouses in Milwaukee and Madison early Saturday, taking advantage of
what may be a small window in which to get hitched before a ruling
overturning the state’s same-sex marriage ban is put on hold.
Milwaukee
County Clerk Joe Czarnezki said couples were lined up outside his
courthouse at 6 a.m., three hours before it opened. Within 30 minutes of
opening, about 45 couples had applied for marriage licenses.
U.S.
District Judge Barbara Crabb issued her ruling Friday afternoon just as
the gay festival PrideFest was starting in Milwaukee. Many couples who
married Saturday morning said they had elected to attend the festival
the night before since they already had plans with friends. Then they
got up early and went to the courthouse.
Craig Cook and Marshall
Draper arrived about 8:30 a.m. and found nearly two dozen couples in
line ahead of them. Cook, 43, said he and others had been hoping Crabb
would make a decision in time for PrideFest. He and Marshall planned to
go back to the festival Saturday after being married by a Unitarian
minister outside the courthouse.
"Had this been legal, we probably
would have done this 20 years ago," Cook said. He said he and Marshall
would likely have a reception in a few weeks, but "this was as formal a
wedding as I’ve ever wanted."
Rachel Arbit , 27, and Ashley
Norris, 30, tried to get married Friday evening but arrived at the
Milwaukee courthouse to find they needed Arbit’s birth certificate and
Social Security card, both of which were locked in a safe deposit box at
a bank nearly three hours away. They returned to the courthouse
Saturday morning and waited for Arbit’s mother to arrive with the
documents.
"We don’t know how long it’s going to last, this ruling," Norris said. "And we don’t want
to miss out."
While
Crabb declared Wisconsin’s ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional,
she did not order the state to allow such marriages. Instead, she asked
the couples who sued to describe exactly what they wanted her to block
in the gay marriage law.
Attorney Larry Dupuis, who represented
the couples who sued, said the ACLU would respond to Crabb’s request
next week and he expected her to explicitly order marriages to begin
after that.
Meanwhile, Republican Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen
asked Crabb on Friday to issue an emergency stay halting the issuing of
further marriage licenses to same-sex couples. He was expected to
petition a federal appeals court for a similar order on Monday.
Arbit
and Norris said they had already planned an October wedding before a
rabbi and more than 100 guests and would still have that ceremony. On
Saturday, they planned to go to dinner with family and friends before
heading to Pridefest that night.
"This is like a total bonus," Arbit said.
More
than 120 couples married in Milwaukee and Madison on Friday night. The
Dane County Clerk’s office said it had issued 30 licenses by 11 a.m.
Saturday and would remain open until 5 p.m. The Milwaukee County Clerk’s
office was closing at 1 p.m.
Voters amended the Wisconsin
Constitution in 2006 to outlaw gay marriage or anything substantially
similar. The ACLU filed a lawsuit in February arguing that the ban
violated the plaintiffs’ constitutional rights to equal protection and
due process.
Jean Salzer, 49, and Linda Kapheim, 52, said they
were surprised how quickly Crabb acted and hadn’t been prepared for
Friday’s ruling. Two of their friends married Friday night while they
were at a Tony Bennett concert in Milwaukee.
"Then we looked at each other and said, ‘Let’s do this,’" Salzer said.
They married Saturday morning. Though they have been together for 14 years, Kapheim said, "It just
makes it so real for family."
"I
think there’s that legitimacy piece," Salzer agreed. "You are the same
as everyone else. Someone with power says we are married."
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