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Marriage Milestone: First Same-Sex Couples Tie Knot (Norwich Bulletin)
Thursday, November 13, 2008
By: Emily Groves
For years, Sarah Jo Burke has dreamed of her wedding to longtime partner Karen Ryker. She has imagined an orchestra playing while couples in gowns and tuxedos danced on the property at the couple's Woodstock home.
Wednesday was the first day such a vision could become reality for Burke and Ryker, together for 26 years, and other same-sex couples across the state.
Marriage licenses became available to same-sex couples in Connecticut at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, after a judge entered the final ruling on the Oct. 10 state Supreme Court decision that same-sex couples have the right to marry.
Barbara and Robin Levine-Ritterman of New Haven, one of the eight couples in the state Supreme Court suit, were the first to receive a marriage license in New Haven, and Peg Oliveira and Jennifer Vickery of New Haven were the first to be married there.
Burke said she and Ryker would have applied for a marriage license Wednesday, but Ryker is in Ireland on a Fulbright scholarship at the Dublin Institute of Technology. Ryker will return Dec. 8, and Burke said the couple will begin making plans then.
“I’m the ninth of 10 kids and all of my brothers and sisters are married,” Burke said. “I’ve been waiting to have that right for years.”
Connecticut and Massachusetts are the only states to allow same-sex marriage, after a state referendum banned the unions in California last week. Connecticut approved civil unions in 2005, but the law is expected to be reconsidered in the next legislative session, which begins in January.
For opponents of same-sex marriage, such as the Roman Catholic Diocese of Norwich, Wednesday’s events did little to change beliefs.
“We believe that the definition of the sacrament of marriage is not one that any human power, even the church, has the right to change,” said Michael Strammiello, director of communications for the Diocese. “That’s where we were before and (Wednesday) morning as well.”
Jeanne Marshall of Norwich and her partner Brenda Miller have applied for a marriage license each year on Valentine’s Day. Wednesday they said they were glad to know they would no longer be denied.
“It was important to have the right to do it,” Marshall said, adding that she and Miller plan to marry in about a year.
Janet Peck and Carol Conklin of Colchester, also a couple in the suit, said they plan to apply for a marriage license in about three weeks, so the license, which is valid for 65 days, won’t expire before their planned Jan. 24 wedding.
To celebrate what they called Wednesday’s “monumental” occasion, they planned to order their wedding rings.
“We wanted something that would really mark the day for us,” Peck said. “We’ve always felt equal, but now we really are equal in the eyes of the law.”
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