It’s the first of August in Minnesota


And you know what that means. My mortgage payment is due? The skeeters are ferocious? It’s hot? Trivialities, all. It means…

Gay people can get married here!

And the courts have been marryin’ up a storm since midnight last night.

140953 marrdj8

4marr080113

Comments

  1. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    Applause, applause. Now to check back in a week and see if Minnesota has fallen into the Mississippi river.

  2. robb says

    this whole gay marriage thing is disgusting.

    disgusting that it took until 2013 for gays to be able to get married.

  3. zenlike says

    I find it funny that a lot of bigots are now whining (for example in the comments section over at the link) that the legalisation is covered extensively in the news. Sorry idiots, it’s YOU who made it a big deal by feverishly blocking any road to equality for years. Now that equality is finally happening, it IS a big deal, and is because of you. Suck it up.

  4. magistramarla says

    And the snowball is picking up speed.
    Unfortunately, it will probably take the involvement of the Feds to bring the southern states into the new century.

  5. magistramarla says

    I saw a lovely ad for weddings in my favorite part of California, the Monterey Bay, showing two lovely brides holding hands while they wade in the surf wearing their wedding gowns.
    It made me happy to see that ad!

  6. says

    So what did Mrs. Myers say when you informed her that now since teh Gays were marrying, your marriage is not void? And did you tell her before or after the giant storm of god-sent locus descending on your state?

    Adam and Steve

  7. Matt G says

    Is somebody here cutting onions?

    @8 – LGBT people will start leaving the southern states and take their money and educations with them. Say, where are the nation’s highest divorce rates? Oh yeah, in the Bible Belt! How’s that holier-than-thou workin’ for ya?

  8. Larry says

    Oh dear, god is really pissed at Minnesota now. Better look out, Nebraska. Some of that mis-directed divine intervention coming your way.

  9. Tethys says

    As a fellow Minnesoootan, I can confirm that it is a beautiful summer day. No earthquakes have occured, fire and brimstone has not rained down from the sky, and I note a distinct lack of locusts. Son and DIL are planning to continue being married

    I am so happy for these couples. How wonderful is it that the Mayor of Minneapolis conducted 42 of the ceremonies personally starting at midnight. Ha ha, take that marriage bigots!

    It is frankly almost shocking to go from defeating a proposed constitutional ban on gay marriage in November, to legalizing it and celebrating it 10 months later. I hope it is evidence that all of the religious people I spent months explaining property and inheritence rights too actually do agree that their religious beliefs are not a good basis for denying other peoples civil rights.

  10. A Hermit says

    we’ve had teh gay marriage here in soviet Canuckistan for years now. It made my hetero marriage go all fabulous…

  11. says

    I’m pregnant and yesterday was my 9th wedding anniversary… now I have to go to work with red blotchy eyes. Too much joy in those pictures for my addled brain. I’m very happy for MN. There is a good chance my state, Hawaii, will come around in ’14.

  12. says

    From link at #13

    When we have a queen who is a lesbian and she marries another lady and then decides she would like to have a child and someone donates sperm and she gives birth to a child, is that child heir to the throne?

    It’s almost as if he thinks there’s some kind of magical mojo in the royal blood line. Doesn’t this guy understand that they’re just normal people in fancy dress?

    It’s interesting how this subject tends to bring all the weird, magical thinking out from under the civilized surface. One moment you’re talking to an educated person of the 21st century, then somebody mentions gay marriage and suddenly you’re looking at a cave man who’s insisting that if those people get to hold hands, the pillars that hold up the heaven will crumble and the stars will fall on the village and burn it down.

  13. truthspeaker says

    Tethys

    1 August 2013 at 1:15 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

    It is frankly almost shocking to go from defeating a proposed constitutional ban on gay marriage in November, to legalizing it and celebrating it 10 months later.

    I think the one led to the other. The Republicans overreached when they put the amendment on the ballot. If they had left it alone same-sex marriage would probably still be illegal in Minnesota. By putting the constitutional amendment on the ballot, they mobilized the Minnesota gay rights people, who started a well organized fundraising campaign which led to a well-funded advertising campaign, resulting not only in the amendment being defeated and the kinds of discussions you mentioned happening, it resulted in Democrats taking back the state legislature. Then the now-established “Vote No” campaign looked at their excellent fund-raising apparatus and said hey, let’s lobby some lawmakers. And here we are.

    On a separate, personal note, Minneapolis City Hall, where Mayor Rybak was marrying people all night, is where my wife and I got married in 2012. It’s a great place for a wedding. Tracy, the event coordinator there, was awesome and I hope she’s getting some rest after last night.

  14. sisu says

    Ms. Jackie Paper @18: You’re always welcome here :) Just be sure to bring a sweater.

  15. Sven says

    One of the haters, quoted in the Star Tribune:

    This is a sad day in our state for the majority of Minnesotans who still believe that marriage is the union of one man and one woman as God designed … We are grieving because we understand that Minnesota’s families, children, and religious liberty rights will all pay the price for the decision made by a group of legislators to force a gender-neutral society on our state.

    Let’s count the fallacies and other forms of stupidity!

    This is a sad day in our state for the majority of Minnesotans…

    Popular majorities are not what determine’s a minority’s civil rights – that’s what the Constitution and Rule of Law are for. Your fairly-elected legislature passed this law, and they represent the electorate. Deal with it.

    …who still believe that marriage is the union of one man and one woman as God designed

    Hey, you’re entitled to your beliefs. And other people are entitled to theirs too. Very difficult concept for religionists, I know.

    We are grieving…

    You are whining and pouting.

    …because we understand…

    No, you clearly DO NOT understand

    …that Minnesota’s families, children…

    Minnesota’s gays will benefit, as well as their family members. Others will not be affected in any negative way.

    …and religious liberty rights will all pay the price…

    What about the religious liberties of thousands and thousands of Minnesotans to marry? YOU are the one attacking religious liberty here.

    …for the decision made by a group of legislators…

    …fairly elected by Minnesotans…

    …to force a gender-neutral society on our state.

    By “gender neutral”, you mean “equal”. This is the crux of the entire statement. This is the horrible thing that Minnesotans will “pay the price for”. Equality.

    And none of this is even new! This isn’t a novel argument! It’s the same regurgitated crap over and over again. Have New Englanders been “paying the price” for marriage equality? Have Canadians been “paying the price”? The only people “paying the price” are the conservatives who made these stupid gloom-and-doom predictions of the evils of marriage equality.

  16. Kaintukee Bob says

    Please send some of this sanity to Ohio. We’re in desperate need.

    Kentucky is leaking northward, I fear.

  17. Tethys says

    it resulted in Democrats taking back the state legislature.

    I think the Republicans actions that resulted in MNs bond rating being downgraded and shutting down the state for several weeks was instrumental in getting a state government that is completely Democrat. I love it when idiots shoot themselves in the foot, I just wish people wouldn’t have to learn the hard way that repubs and teapartiers make for horrible representatives.

    I lobbied a lot door to door to prevent the ban amendment. Property rights and inheritence and being treated equally under the law was something that even the most religious homophobes would agree with, albeit grudgingly.

    (I always wanted to get married in the Conservatory.)

  18. qwerty says

    I just had to go to city hall last night to witness history. I saw both of the marriages depiced in the pictures above.

    There was a massive outpouring of cheering for these couples. The first to wed after Minnesota’s new same-sex marriage law took effect. It was quite a night.

    The little boy in the picture stole the show from his parents. He waved to his grandparents sitting in the first row, sat down when he got bored; and looked spiffy in his suit.

    It was a great night for the Minnesota glbt community.

  19. Rey Fox says

    Sorry idiots, it’s YOU who made it a big deal by feverishly blocking any road to equality for years.

    What’s more, it was their attempt to enshrine marriage inequality in the state constitution that, when it failed, got the gay marriage ban to be overturned by the legislature. Choke on that, bigots. You lose.

    And just remember, I can gloat in your faces most unsportsmanlike right now, because I know that you really have lost nothing. Your lives and the lives of every other heterosexual in Minnesota are going to be exactly the same as they were before.

  20. says

    What a mixed day for me. This is clearly a great thing.

    But the haters ran out the clock on my 14 year relationship that ended when my partner died in January. I think I’ve mentioned before. It seems that the haters and I are the ones having a hard day. Weird to have something in common with them after all these years.

    I’m glad it’s happened, but I will be gladder when the hoopla dies down.

  21. playonwords says

    @ 33 Bob, you make it sound like santorum

    Good wishes to all – especially all newly-weds