Big rush to altar in California

Hundreds of gay and lesbian couples had appointments to secure marriage licences and exchange vows on Tuesday, the first full day same-sex nuptials will be legal throughout California.

From San Diego to San Francisco, couples readied their formal wear, local licencing clerks expanded their staffs and conservative groups warned of a backlash as America’s most populous state prepared to join Massachusetts in sanctioning gay unions. Unlike Massachusetts, which legalised same-sex marriage in 2004, California has no residency requirement for marriage licences, which is expected to encourage a large number of couples to head west to wed.

“We might wait a long time in Tennessee, so this is our chance,” said Robert Blaudow, of Memphis. He and his partner, Derek Norman, 23, decided to get married at the Alameda County clerk’s office while they were in the San Francisco Bay Area for a conference.

The May 15 California Supreme Court ruling that overturned the state’s bans on same-sex marriage became final at 5.01pm on Monday, and clerks in at least five counties extended their hours to mark the historic occasion.

Already, dozens of same-sex couples have seized the opportunity to make their relationships official in the eyes of the law. “We’re glad that we’re living in this time when history is being made,” said Sandy Mills, an Oakland physician who was getting married to her partner of nine years, Mar Stevens, an employee of the county district attorney’s office.

“I’m tired of checking the single box,” said Danielle Lemay, 34, who picked up a marriage licence in Woodland with her partner, Angie Hinrichs.

“I feared I’d be checking that my whole life.” The big rush to the altar was expected on Tuesday, when every county was required to start issuing new gender-neutral marriage licenses with spaces for “Party A” and “Party B” where “bride” and “groom” used to be.

On Monday, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, who helped launch the series of lawsuits that led the court to strike down California’s one-man-one-woman marriage laws, presided at the wedding of Del Martin, 87, and Phyllis Lyon, 83.

Newsom picked the couple for the only ceremony on Monday in City Hall to recognise their 55-year relationship and their status as pioneers of the gay rights movement. More than 650 same-sex couples have made appointments to get marriage licences in San Francisco before the end of the month.

Newsom called officiating the wedding “this extraordinary and humbling gift”. After the mayor pronounced Martin and Lyon “spouses for life”, the couple kissed, then emerged to a crowd of well-wishers who showered them with rose petals. The celebrations are tempered by the reality that in a few months, Californians will go to the ballot box to vote on an initiative that would overturn the high court ruling and again ban gay marriage.

On Monday, three lawmakers and a small group of other same-sex opponents gathered outside the Capitol to criticise the Supreme Court decision. They urged voters to approve the ballot measure. “This is an opportunity to take back a little bit of dignity... for kids, for all of us in California,” Republican Assemblyman Doug LaMalfa said. “It really disturbs me that the will of the people was overridden by four members of the Supreme Court.”