Gay couples rush to marry across California

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San Francisco City Hall is lit up in rainbow colors the night before the city’s gay pride parade. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

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Jessica Hand, center, celebrates with her wife Jenna Melili during a marriage ceremony at City Hall in San Francisco on Saturday. Hand bought the wedding dress for $50 at a thrift store. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

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Jessica Hand, in the wedding dress, and her wife, Jenna Melili, enjoy a cruise in San Francisco Bay on Saturday after getting married earlier in the day. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

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Army Sgt. Michael Potoczniak and Todd Saunders, left; and Cynthia Wides, in the veil, and Elizabeth Carey wait to get married at City Hall in San Francisco on Saturday (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

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Dave Martinez, in blue, hugs his new husband Kenny during a marriage ceremony at San Francisco’s City Hall on Saturday (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

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Army Sgt. Michael Potoczniak and Todd Saunders have a witness sign their marriage license at City Hall in San Francisco Saturday. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

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Elizabeth Carey, left, and Cyntia Wides embrace as Army Sgt. Michael Potoczniak and his partner Todd Saunders wait patiently in line to get married at City Hall in San Francisco on Saturday. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

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Cynthia Wides, left, and and Elizabeth Carey of Oakland walk out of City Hall a married couple Saturday in San Francisco. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

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Army Sgt. Michael Potoczniak and his partner Todd Saunders exchange rings during a marriage ceremony at City Hall in San Francisco Saturday. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

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Army Sgt. Michael Potoczniak kisses his partner Todd Saunders as they stand in line to get their marriage license at City Hall in San Francisco Saturday. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

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Rachael Hadley left, and her new wife Kim celebrate with their children Sidney, left, and Phin at City Hall while getting married Saturday in San Francisco. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

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A couple who have been together for 33 years sign documents to get married at City Hall in San Francisco Saturday (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

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Brandie Yelland, left, hugs friend Erika Lewis in support of her marriage outside City Hall in San Francisco Saturday. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

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A couple show off their wedding rings after getting married at City Hall in San Francisco Saturday. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

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A couple hug during a marriage ceremony at City Hall in San Francisco Saturday. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

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Cal Joy, center, and Olga Yip join hands in marriage as their daughter, Sasha Yip, 6, observes in San Francisco City Hall on Saturday. “It’s almost indescribable how it feels for us to be able to do this when for so long we felt like it was an unreachable goal,” Joy said. (Susannah Kay / Los Angeles Times)

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Adrian Coleman, front, dances with Matt Ferrer on Saturday in the United Nations Plaza in downtown San Francisco, where gay rights supporters celebrated the resumption of same-sex weddings in California. (Susannah Kay / Los Angeles Times)

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Ashlee and Ky Meyer-Choi touch noses after getting married in San Francisco City Hall on Saturday. “We’ve overcome a lot of struggles to be together, so to see all the support and love is something we haven’t experienced,” Ky said. (Susannah Kay / Los Angeles Times)

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Barb and Heather Miller-Webb kiss on the steps outside City Hall after being married Saturday. (Susannah Kay / Los Angeles Times)

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George Lucas, left, and Tom Rothgiesser, both 79, who met in Johannesburg, South Africa, and have been dating for 50 years, got married in San Francisco on Saturday. (Susannah Kay / Los Angeles Times)

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Newlyweds Carey Myslewski, left, and Katy Yan walk out of City Hall on Saturday. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

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Jeff Zarrillo, left, and Paul Katami are married by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa at City Hall in downtown Los Angeles after the 9th Circuit Court lifted the stay on same-sex marriage in California. (Christina House / For the Times)

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Jeff Zarrillo, left, and Paul Katami speak to the media immediately after their wedding ceremony by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa at City Hall in downtown Los Angeles. (Christina House / For the Times)

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Alan Tekerlek, left, and K.C. Bugg celebrate in the crowd as their friends Jeff Zarrillo and Paul Katami are married by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. (Christina House / For the Times)

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Supporters applaud as Sandy Stier, second from right, and Kris Perry prepare to get married at San Francisco City Hall by California Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris. Gov. Jerry Brown ordered all counties in the state to begin issuing licenses immediately after the 9th Circuit Court ruling. (Justin Sullivan / Getty Images)

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Sandy Stier, left, and Kris Perry kiss their son, Elliot Perry, after they were married at San Francisco City Hall. (Justin Sullivan / Getty Images)

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Joe Varnell, left, and Kevin Bourassa, who became Canadas first legally married gay couple in 2001, welcome the courts decision at a Toronto bar. (J.P. Moczulski / AP)

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Hundreds of gay rights supporters gathered in West Hollywood on Wednesday to celebrate the Supreme Court rulings on the Defense of Marriage Act and California’s Proposition 8. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

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Carlos Jimenez, left, and Mike Dardenelle of the San Fernando Valley kiss during a gathering on San Vicente Boulevard celebrating the Supreme Court decision Wednesday affirming a lower court’s ruling that declared Proposition 8, which banned gay marriage in California, unconstitutional. Jimenez and Dardenelle, who met online, have been dating for 15 years and plan to get married as soon as possible. (Susannah Kay / Los Angeles Times)

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Rainbow flags and flags of equality are raised in West Hollywood. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

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Vincent Cervantes, left, and his partner, Vince Pancucci, embrace during a rally in West Hollywood after the Supreme Court’s ruling against Proposition 8. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

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Kirsty Hood, 24, left, kisses Nora Tavitian, 23, at the Equality California offices in West Hollywood as a crowd celebrated the U.S. Supreme Court’s long-awaited decision on Proposition 8, California’s ban on same-sex marriage, Wednesday morning. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

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A crowd gathered at the Equality California offices in West Hollywood cheers the Supreme Court’s decision on Proposition 8. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

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Brandon Benoit, center, hugs Martha Acevedo, left and Briana J. Castaneda during the celebration at the Equality California offices in West Hollywood. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

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Partners Alicia Guajardo, left, and Isabella Restrepo of Sylmar join the celebration at the Equality California offices in West Hollywood. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

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Gay marriage supporters prompt motorists to honk their horns as they pass Equality California offices in West Hollywood to join in the merriment after the Supreme Court handed down its ruling on Proposition 8. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

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Gay marriage supporters celebrate outside the Equality California offices in West Hollywood after Wednesday’s ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that the sponsors of California’s controversial Proposition 8 did not have the legal standing to appeal a 2010 ruling against the measure. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

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From right, David Cooley, Brandon Brown, Colby Melvin, Cory Leech and Wildran Quesada celebrate the Supreme Court decision to strike down a key part of the federal Defense of Marriage Act. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

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Brandon Brown, 28, left, and Colby Melvin, 25, hug as as they celebrate the Supreme Court decision to strike down a key part of the federal Defense of Marriage Act. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

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Brandon Brown, 28, left, gets a piece of cake from Colby Melvin, 25, as they celebrate the Supreme Court decision to strike down a key part of the federal Defense of Marriage Act. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

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Robin Tyler tears up as she looks at her partner Diane Olsen during a press conference at attorney Gloria Allred’s office in Los Angeles, where they discussed the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on same-sex marriage cases. They were the first in California in 2004 to announce that they would file a lawsuit challenging the ban on same-sex marriage in California. (Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times)

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The plaintiffs’ team in Hollingsworth vs. Perry, the California Proposition 8 case, celebrate on the steps of the Supreme Court after Wednesday’s ruling was handed down. From left are Jeff Zarrillo, his partner, Paul Katami, attorney David Boies, Sandy Stier and her partner, Kris Perry. (J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press)

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Elana Kessler, left, is embraced by friend Hannah Greenberg as she speaks by phone with her mother on the steps of the Supreme Court after the court issued its rulings in two same-sex marriage cases. (Win McNamee / Getty Images)

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Gay rights activists react outside the U.S. Supreme Court building in Washington after the ruling on California’s Proposition 8. (Mladen Antonov / AFP/Getty Images)

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Plaintiffs Kristen Perry and Sandy Stier, left, and Jeffrey Zarrillo and Paul Katami arrive at the Supreme Court Wednesday morning to hear the high court’s ruling on California’s Proposition 8, which forbids on same-sex marriage. (Jim Lo Scalzo / EPA)

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Members of the public wait in line to enter the Supreme Court to hear their rulings on two same-sex marriage cases. (Jim Lo Scalzo / EPA)

By Hailey Branson Potts, Emily Foxhall and Christine Mai-Duc

July 1, 2013 7:31 PM PT

Gay couples caught off guard by Friday’s surprise announcement that same-sex marriage is once again legal in California rushed to local courthouses Monday morning to get marriage licenses.

Outgoing Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa performed Southern California’s first same-sex ceremony since 2008 on Friday evening — marrying two of the plaintiffs from a case the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear last week, paving the way for the change in law — but for most gay couples Monday was the first chance to tie the knot.

And they arrived in happy pairs at county recorders offices and courthouses across the Southland.

Lee Conger, 56, and John Wingler, 66, confessed they “dallied” when gay marriage was briefly legal in the state in 2008.

So when they heard the news that a California appeals court had reinstated gay marriage Friday afternoon, weeks before anyone anticipated, “We freaked out and realized we’d better get ourselves down” to the courthouse, Conger said.

The couple raced from their home in Silver Lake to Norwalk to get their license Monday morning.

When they arrived, at 7:20 a.m., it was “like a party,” Wingler said, as other couples showed up with the same sense of hope and urgency. Standing in line together, listening to everyone else’s stories, was “heartwarming and encouraging,” Conger said.

On Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the federal Defense of Marriage Act, thereby requiring the federal government to recognize gay marriages approved by states.

The Supreme Court also declined to rule on an appeal of a California court decision striking down Proposition 8, the 2008 ballot measure that banned gay marriage in the Golden State.

Initially, the California federal appeals court indicated it would be weeks until marriages could resume. But on Friday, the court unexpectedly announced that the ban was lifted immediately.

Rey Ramos, 43, and Rob Larsen, 53, headed from Pasadena to the Beverly Hills courthouse to get their license. In line, they met a rabbi who offered to marry them on the spot.

“All of these years of marching in the street and writing to Assembly people, it’s finally done,” said Larsen, a retired California Highway Patrol officer.

Kern County Assessor-Recorder-County Clerk Dennis Draeger said his office had performed 39 weddings by 1 p.m., double the pace of a typical Monday. The increase was because of same-sex ceremonies, Draeger said.

In West Hollywood, road signs along Santa Monica and Robertson boulevards directed drivers to “Wedding Parking.” City staffers set up awnings and tested wedding music over loudspeakers, and members of the City Council were deputized by county Recorder-Registrar Dean Logan to officiate weddings.

After the swearing in, a woman in the audience stood up and shouted in protest: “What about the people of California who went to the polls and voted” for Proposition 8?

Someone responded: “They lost!”

As a sheriff’s deputy escorted the protester out of the room, she continued shouting: “Jesus Christ is not pleased! What about the people’s votes?”

City Councilman John Duran shouted back at her: “Thank God for the Supreme Court!”

West Hollywood, which has the highest concentration of gay residents in Los Angeles County, offered free wedding ceremonies outside its City Council chambers for much of the day.

Pat Joyce and Anne Morrison of Northridge arrived in West Hollywood early Monday morning. Morrison clutched the yellow folder holding their wedding license, which they had just gotten from the registrar-recorder branch in Beverly Hills.

The couple have been together for 26 years. “It was a long engagement,” said Morrison, 61, a retired teacher.

“We talked about marriage many times,” said Joyce, 60, who works on the support staff at UCLA.

The couple said they didn’t think they’d ever see legal gay marriage. “Not in our lifetime,” Joyce said.

They began planning to wed in 2008 but were unable to have a ceremony before Proposition 8 passed. They became domestic partners instead.

“We thought we had time,” Joyce said. “We were too late.”

Fear of another sudden reversal in the law drove many to the altar Monday morning; others had more pressing concerns.

Two brothers from Reseda sat in red lawn chairs at the entrance to the City Council chambers, having staked out the prime position so their aunts, Helen Andersen and Pam Holt, could have the first wedding of the day.

Holt has terminal cancer and can’t be on her feet for long. “They’ve been waiting 18 years for this,” said Tyler Mead, 21, one of the brothers. “I’d wait days in this line for them.”

When Pachelbel’s Canon in D wafted out of the speaker system, Mead laughed with joy. “That’s awesome,” he said. “I’ve been holding back tears all day.”
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