A Year Later, City Celebrates

One year and 638 licenses later, Cambridge politicians, families, and supporters gathered yesterday at City Hall to celebrate the anniversary of legal same-sex marriage while also reflecting on the uncertain future of those rights in Massachusetts.

“Last year was a time for celebration...but now is a time to recognize that the rights and privileges we have, others are trying to take them away,” said Mayor Michael A. Sullivan, speaking before the crowded chamber.

Yesterday afternoon’s celebration came one year after the city allowed same-sex couples to file for marriage licenses at midnight on May 17, 2004—the first moment when a landmark state court ruling legalizing same-sex marriage went into effect.

Granting marriage licenses to same-sex couples “fulfilled our mission to fight for freedom for all,” said Councillor Kenneth E. Reeves ’72 before the ceremony. Reeves said the fact that Cambridge was the first city in the nation to offer those licenses was ”perfectly apropos” for Cambridge’s liberal reputation.

A proposed state constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage but allowing civil unions passed a vote of the legislature last year. The proposal needs the vote of a newly-elected legislature in 2005-06 before it could be put to voters in a referendum.

Ryan R. Thoreson ’07, a co-chair of Harvard’s Bisexual, Gay, Lesbian, Transgender, and Supporters Alliance who attended yesterday’s celebration, called a ban in Massachusetts “a very real chance.” But “the threat has lessened since last year,” Thoreson added, referring to the shift in legislative leadership toward same-sex marriage supporters.

Thoreson and three other Harvard students traveled together to yesterday’s ceremony, which included photo and video retrospectives of last year’s celebration.

The event also featured the cutting of an anniversary cake by Marcia Hams and Susan Shepherd of Cambridge, who became the first same-sex couple to file for a marriage license last year after waiting in line for 24 hours.

Hams’ and Shepherd’s son Peter Hams, a senior at the College of William and Mary, spoke during the ceremony.

“A lot of people ask me, what’s the difference? Why does it matter?” Peter Hams said, referring to his parents’ marriage.

“It’s the first time I can speak openly about my family with pride.”

Another child of same-sex spouses present at the celebration was Jesse McGleughlin, a seventh-grader at the Graham and Parks School in Cambridge.

“As young children, all of us were free-minded...[but] I hate myself for hiding my life as I grow up,” McGleughlin said.

“I’m not proud that I need a law to acknowledge my family,” she added.

Statistics released by the state indicate that same-sex couples who married over the last year were much older than their heterosexual counterparts, and many of the spouses who participated in the celebration last night, including Hams and Shepherd, have been together for decades.

But for Somerville residents Davida Wegner and Molly Butterworth, the possibility of marriage comes at an earlier point in their relationship. The two, who are engaged, met as students at Dartmouth, where Wegner graduated in 2001 and Butterworth in 2002. Wegner plans to attend graduate school at Yale in the fall; Butterworth will study in Utah.

“It’s not for financial benefit so much as it’s going to be legally sanctioned,” Wegner said.

Faced with the possibility that same-sex marriage could be curtailed in the future, Butterworth said of the celebration that “it’s important to gather positive energy for the work ahead....The days [lobbying] at the State House are not celebratory.”

Mark A. Covey, a student at the Kennedy School of Government, echoed Butterworth, saying that the celebration “helps build momentum.”

“[Marriage] was such a step forward, and we need to keep it alive,” he said.

As couples exited City Hall, they were showered with glitter and multicolored feathers by Su Eaton, a Somerville resident who dressed in pink-and-black stockings and a tutu, and carried a wand.

“Blessings of love from the Love Fairy!” Eaton cried, as a campaigner for Howard Dean handed out pamphlets nearby.

“It’s still about love, and the right of who you want to love,” Eaton said.

While some protesters lined up on Mass. Ave. to oppose same-sex marriage during last year’s celebration, no protesters were visible outside of City Hall yesterday.

—Staff writer Brendan R. Linn can be reached at blinn@fas.harvard.edu.