When was the first government-recognized same-sex marriage in the United States? It wasn't 2015, when the Supreme Court ruled. Or 2004, when Massachusetts became the first state to recognize marriages for LGBTs. It wasn't in the 80s or 90s, when various cities began offering limited domestic partnerships.
In fact, it was way back in 1975.
Same-sex couples had attempted to obtain marriage licenses in the past. Activists named John Singer and Paul Barwick would demand licenses from marriage counters, only to be turned down.
And a couple in Minnesota, Richard Baker and James Michael McConnell, were able to briefly obtain a marriage license -- but only because Baker changed his name to be gender-neutral, and county officials thought that "Pat Lyn McConnell" was a woman. When officials found out that the couple was gay, they declared the license invalid.
The very first official to intentionally issue a marriage license to a same-sex couple was a young County Clerk in Boulder, Colorado named Clela Rorex. She had run for the position after party officials told her that a woman couldn't possibly win. She was annoyed by that sexist assumption, and with some encouragement from her other feminist friends, she ran for office and won.
She had only been in office a few weeks when two men named Dave showed up to ask for a license. Clela had never met any out gay people in her life, and didn't know what to do -- but after consulting with attorneys, she decided that there was no law preventing her from granting the request.
All told, she issued six licenses to six couples, including Richard Adams and Tony Sullivan. They were a bi-national couple, and attempted to use the license to secure Tony's citizenship. But the INS refused to recognize it, writing, "you have failed to establish that a bona fide marital relationship can exist between two faggots."
Meanwhile, the entire country was freaking out over Clela's actions. One local crackpot rented a horse from Hidden Valley Ranch, and attempted to marry it. Clela informed him that the horse was under-age. According to newspaper reports, the man just shrugged and invited Clela to join him at a bar across the street for a drink.
But pressure on Clela kept mounting, and eventually she was forced to resign from her position. The memory of her brave stand followed her for years, and she suffered for it: certain places wouldn't hire her, knowing what she had done. Eventually she began working at a civil rights nonprofit and remained there for years. Today, the Clela Rorex Allies in Action Award is named for her.
It was 40 years before marriage returned to Boulder. Hillary Hall, Clela's successor, began issuing licenses to same-sex couples in 2014. Like Clela, she did so without permission because she felt it was the right thing to do. As with Clela, the state tried to stop her. But this time, opposition to Hall was weak, and soon enough Colorado's marriage ban crumbled.
Forty years after Clela became the first government official to intentionally issue a marriage license to a same-sex couple, marriage finally returned to the state. It's been legal there ever since.
"I don't feel vindicated, but I feel validated that this was the right decision to begin with," she told me when I interviewed her for my book and podcast, Defining Marriage, which traces the stories behind the history of marriage equality.
The impacts of Clela's actions linger to this day. Tony Sullivan is still trying to get the INS to recognize that marriage license. And the government continues to engage in deportation proceedings against him. Incredible though it sounds, after four decades it remains unknown whether he'll be allowed to remain in the country.
But fortunately, as of 2015, the Supreme Court has ruled that the US Constitution requires the freedom to marry. It took a long time, but finally the US government recognizes that a marital relationship CAN exist between two faggots.