Local News

WOODLAND, Yolo County (AP) ― It took a few days for last month's California Supreme Court decision to sink in for Wes Wilkinson and Jeff Barr. Then it struck them, while they were driving to a rodeo social.

"I proposed to him and then he immediately proposed to me, and then we both said yes at the same time," said Wilkinson, who was behind the wheel of their Ford F-350 diesel pickup truck as they headed to the "Beer Bust."

They met eight years ago at a barn dance while both were on the gay rodeo circuit and now live together on a five-acre ranch in Elverta, about 16 miles north of the state capital. They have horses and roping calves, chickens and two chocolate labs.

Wilkinson, 43, and Barr, 44, weren't expecting to be married on Monday because the Yolo County clerk's office already filled all the spaces for wedding ceremonies. But when another couple canceled, the clerk's office called them Monday morning.

Barr's parents drove from the East Bay to act as witnesses, and the couple quickly threw together their wedding attire.

Of course, the theme was cowboy.

They wore matching black jeans, black leather vests with white rose boutonnieres and white long-sleeved shirts with black bow ties. Their cowboy boots and black cowboy hats also matched.

Before the ceremony, Barr said he was nervous but excited to be marrying "the man I love."

"I accepted the marriage many years ago," said his mother, Louise Barr. "This is just icing on the cake."
___

WINE COUNTRY WEDDING: Mark Hemry, 58, and Jack Fritscher, 69, together 29 years, came to Sonoma County to celebrate and witness history. But the couple, who collaborated on a soon-to-be published history, "Gay San Francisco," became swept up in the occasion.

Though they received a civil union in Vermont, were married in Canada and wed in San Francisco in 2004, the Sebastopol pair decided to get their license here too.

"We sort of feel," Fritscher said, "that we're on a marriage-go-round."
___

I'LL DRINK TO THAT: In The Mix, a bar in San Francisco's Castro district, a group of men and women broke into applause as a large flatscreen television showed the first same-sex couple getting their wedding licenses in City Hall.

"They're iconic," said Michael Groark, 61, of Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon. "This is a tribute they deserve."

Groark spoke about how much has changed since he first moved to San Francisco in the 1970s when much of the gay community rejected the idea of marriage as an imitation of heterosexual values.

"I don't want to get married myself, but I also don't want to be, quote unquote, less than and that's the way we've been treated," he said.

Sitting on the long polished bar, Tom Longland, 66, agreed.

"I see a change in attitudes and I hope it starts spreading outside California," Longland said.
___

BEVERLY HILLS BASH: Since 2001, Robin Tyler and Diane Olson went to the courthouse here around Valentine's Day to obtain a marriage license. Each time, they walked away empty-handed.

But on Monday, Tyler, 66, and Olson, 54, emerged from the courthouse shortly after 5 p.m. waving a gender-neutral license above their heads.

The couple, who were two of the plaintiffs in the lawsuits that led to the California Supreme Court's May 15 decision to legalize same-sex marriage, walked hand in hand from the county clerk's window to the courthouse steps, where they tied the knot in a Jewish ceremony.

It was the first same-sex wedding in Los Angeles county.

Dressed in matching off-white pantsuits, Tyler and Olson were surrounded by about 75 friends and relatives. The couple wept and pressed their foreheads together, and onlookers whooped as the marriage became valid.

Later, Tyler and Olson fed each other a piece of their three-tiered wedding cake.

"We got our day," Olson said. "All the work was so worth it."
___

SOMETHING OLD, SOMETHING NEW: San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom brought something old to the wedding ceremony he officiated Monday evening -- traditional marriage vows that elicited laughter from the guests who came to see Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon get hitched.

"The contract of marriage is most solemn. It is not to be entered into lightly, but thoughtfully and seriously," Newsom told Martin, 87, and Lyon, 83, who have been together for 55 years.

The audience of friends, relatives and elected officials burst into good-natured chuckles.

After the pair exchanged rings and promised to keep each other in sickness and in health as long as they both shall live, the mayor reminded them that "Love's compassion is the glory of life. Never take each other for granted," another comment that seemed to strike an odd note under the circumstances.

Newsom got his last laugh from the appreciative crowd when he said he was pronouncing Martin and Lyon "spouses for life" under authority "vested in me as a deputy marriage commissioner," not mayor.

Under California marriage laws, only judges, state officials and members of Congress are automatically entitled to solemnize marriages.
___

EAST BAY BLISS: In the Beaux Arts splendor of Oakland's City Hall, dozens of people packed into City Council chambers to watch Mayor Ron Dellums marry 18 same-sex couples.

Dellums, who had Congresswoman Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, as one of the witnesses to the ceremonies, married the couples with a simple ceremony, ending each one by saying "I proudly pronounce you married under the laws of the state of California.

Each union was greeted by whoops, cheers and prolonged applause.

Some couples were so eager they jumped in with "I dos," before the mayor had finished reading out the questions. And a few put their own spin on the brief ceremony.

After they were pronounced married, Dignan Phoenix Bates and William Marion Jennings whipped out feathered fans from under their jackets and fanned themselves vigorously, getting a big laugh.

Monday's marriage was the second one for Ryan James, 32, and Moe Perez, 39, leaders of the Alameda County chapter of Marriage Equality USA. They lined up for a license on Valentine's Day 2004 in San Francisco after Mayor Gavin Newsom allowed same-sex marriages in that city.

But after the court ruling nullifying those ceremonies, the couple got a form notifying them their marriage was over and offering a refund of their $84 license fee.

They also plan to have a bigger wedding in August.

"I'll marry Ryan 10 times if I have to," Perez said a few hours before the ceremony. "It's the same feeling each time. It's great."

(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)