Hi dopers! My partner and I were able to marry legally in Portland, Oregon yesterday, just shy of 6 years after our commitment ceremony.
We were not planning to go unless Multnomah County’s decision to grant licenses to same-sex couples was adopted statewide. However, after reading some very unpleasant anti-gay articles, and with the knowledge that a lawsuit was to be filed attempting to stop the issuance of licenses, we jumped in the car and drove to Portland. It was raining, which is how we knew we were still in the right state.
We arrived at the Multnomah [County] Building at about 1:30 p.m. There was a line, but not as bad as it had been on Wednesday. Though it rained occasionally, we were under cover (though still in a reasonably cold wind). Two lone protesters with misspelled signs stood quietly on the other side of a barricade. Folks from the sherriff’s office were visible and pleasant. As we waited for about an hour to get to the front door, people passed out cookies, pizza and flowers, as well as business cards and fliers for services (e.g., perform your wedding, videotape your wedding, antique your picture frames, feed you at a 20% discount, etc.). It was wonderful to see a great variety of people there, from young things with bones through their noses and spiky dead-black hair to grandparents with several generations in tow. We were in black jeans, off-brand sneakers, and sweaters because we’d run out the door, and because we have already had a formal wedding with our family and friends.
It took us another 45 minutes or so to travel from the front door, through the entryway, and into the board room. The board room had the virtue of being dry and quieter. There we spent more than another hour wending our way through the rows of fixed seating. We busied ourselves by applauding the marriages being performed with the commissioner’s desks as backdrop, and by networking with the couples on either side of us. We finally arrived at tables where volunteers from Basic Rights Oregon helped us fill out the paperwork. We had to choose a bride and groom since the forms can’t be altered. My partner lost the coin toss, so she had to be the groom. (We never realized when people asked up “Which of you is the man?” that one day we’d actually have to decide.) We then lined up with our paperwork and waited for an escort across the lobby from the board room to the cashiers and clerks. There we stood in line (are you getting the picture?) and received our license; then stood in another line to pay for said license ($60 cash).
We then dashed out of the building to find someone to officiate. BRO had had people available all day, but had had to get out of the auditorium they were using by 4:00. We found a number of clergypeople just outside the building, with more arriving from the auditorium (we assume). The process was a little like stepping out of the airport in Jamaica and looking for what you hope will be the best taxi. We found a woman whom we’d seen earlier and she agreed to perform our marriage. She and a photographer had come down from Seattle to help out. We had a wonderful ceremony (and fast–my partner called it “guerrilla weddings”), witnessed by the couple who had been standing just ahead of us for 3 1/2 hours. We in turn helped witness for them (me) and be a ring bearer (my partner). As they were reading their vows, a news team arrived, emboldening one of the protesters to cross the street and wave his sign more strenuously; apparently when the building closed, security went away. Another man showed up with his bible and his children with their religious books, and began shouting at us about sin. My partner encouraged us in a loud rendition of “Going to the Chapel” (enthusiastic but a bit mumbly at several points as we did not know the words).
3 1/2 hours after we began, a very short time compared to Portland on Wednesday and certainly short compared to San Francisco, we jumped back in the car (no parking ticket either, which I consider a sign of heavenly approval) and drove back down I-5 to collect my partner’s parents and sister for a celebratory dinner. We had to explain why we got married again, since they’d already seen us have a commitment ceremony and a civil union in Vermont, but everyone was very happy and even our child waitress at Appleby’s brought us a purple balloon with her congratulations.
So how about other dopers? Who’s getting married in this possibly-short window of opportunity?
