San Francisco Mayor Performs Same-Sex Marriage Ceremony for 50

San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown will perform a marriage ceremony for 50 same-sex couples at City Hall. The ceremony is open to the first 50 couples to pay the city’s $35 registration free to be recognized as domestic partners and $30 for the ceremony.

Brown said, “On March 25th, we will put a human face on same-sex relationships, challenging America to look at these couples who pay the same taxes, share the same hopes and dreams, contribute equally to society, and yet are denied equality under the law.”

More than three thousand couples have registered with the city as domestic partners since the passing of the 1992 ordinance. City laws also allow retirement and benefits to be extended to same-sex spouses.

Twenty-seven states have prohibited recognition of same-sex marriages performed in other states since Mayor Brown performed the first same-sex ceremony in 1996.

Feminist News Stories on Same-Sex Marriage

Media Resources: Nando.net - March 11, 1998

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