Gay News from London

San Francisco celebrates first same-sex wedding anniversary

San Francisco City Hall was the site where couples came, packing the rotunda and spreading out over two floors. With friends and family, carrying photos of their wedding ceremonies, balloons and champagne, couples marked the first anniversary of the day when Mayor Gavin Newsom ordered the county clerk to begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. "It is no longer acceptable for politicians to come to you every election cycle and ask for money and then say, 'It's too much, too soon,'" Newsom told about 3,000 attendees. Standing on the grand marble staircase Newsom saved his sharpest rhetoric for Bush. "Don't give up the fight. Don't feel discouraged. Don't listen to the president of the United States," Newsom said to thunderous applause. "We were legally nullified, but they were not spiritually nullified," said Robert Castillo, who had wed his partner of 14 years, John Pennycuff, on March 5.
[Date: 14-Feb-05 ]