Email a thank you note to San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom for his heroic stance.

The Center's Marriage Project

Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin celebrate their 51st anniversary by being the first lesbian couple married in San Francisco on 12 February 2004 (SF Chronicle/Liz Mangelsdorf)

The delightful Pagan Minister who performed our ceremony, Christmas Leubrie (Reuters/Kimberly White)

Alice and Christmas celebrate their love with a San Francisco wedding of their own! (Reuters/Kimberly White)

After driving all night, we snuck into the Public Health building in the background to change into our wedding clothes.

These precious children handed out pink tulips and yellow daffodils along with scrolls of Sappho's and Shakespeare's poetry to every couple waiting in line.

This gorgeous bouquet was sent from East Lansing, Michigan (probably part of a loving grassroots movement called Flowers in the Heartland) and felt like an exquisite hug from the universe. (Photo courtesy of Amy, Jen, and Nora)

You can hardly see that we have been awake for over thirty hours at this point, and you certainly can't tell that we've been assured over and over that City Hall won't have time to marry us today! (Photo courtesy of Amy, Jen, and Nora)

The beautiful family in line behind us: Amy, Jen, and precious little Nora. Nora's Mama and Mommy reminded us again and again throughout the day how precious life is, and that the Gay Agenda sometimes looks like sharing your Fruit Bits with a pigeon or taking turns running to the nearby playground.

You can almost see how tired and cold we really are in this picture (Photo courtesy of Hillgirlz)

"Dozens of gay and lesbian couples line up to get their marriage license at the San Francisco City Hall. San Francisco City officials announced a plan to sue the State of California, challenging its ban on same sex marriages." (AFP/Hector Mata)

They finally let us in! This is really going to happen!

After waiting a lifetime, we are finally getting married!

"No other human ties are more tender and no other vows more important than those you are about to pledge."

Photo by Anne-Marie McReynolds of the San Jose Mercury News.


The Marriage Ceremony
We are gathered here in the presence of witnesses for the purpose of uniting in matrimony Bonnie Margay Burke and Laura Kay Sutherland.
The contract of marriage is most solemn and is not to be entered into lightly,
but thoughtfully and seriously with a deep realization of its obligations and responsibilities.
Please remember that love, loyalty and understanding are the foundations of a happy and enduring home.
No other human ties are more tender and no other vows more important than those you are about to pledge.
Do you Bonnie, take Laura, to be your spouse for life? I do!
Do you Laura, take Bonnie, to be your spouse for life? I do!
Do you promise to love and comfort each other, honor and keep each other in sickness and in health,
for richer and for poorer, for better or for worse and be faithful to each other as long as you both shall live? We do!
Bonnie, place the ring on Laura's finger and repeat after me.
I give you this ring in token and pledge of my constant faith and abiding love. With this ring, I thee wed.
Laura, place the ring on Bonnie's finger and repeat after me.
I give you this ring in token and pledge of my constant faith and abiding love. With this ring, I thee wed.
Now that you have joined yourselves in matrimony, may you strive all your lives to meet this commitment
with the same love and devotion that you now possess.
By virtue of the authority vested in me by the State of California, I now pronounce you spouses for life.