Gays, Lesbians Make Vows In San Francisco

Showing its defiance against critics of homosexual unions, the city of San Francisco hosted a wedding ceremony for 50 gay and lesbian couples in a War Memorial Building ceremony replete with flowers and music.

Mayor Willie Brown was among a dozen city and state officials who officiated at Wednesday’s ceremony, the second the city has held.

The recognition of committed gay and lesbian relationships as legitimate marriages was heartening to the assembled couples.

“It’s wonderful,” beamed Wendy Nemeroff, a lawyer for a software company. “It makes me feel special to live in a city that does something like this. It makes me appreciate San Francisco.”

“We feel validated,” said her partner, Kim Ness, a firefighter, as she squeezed Nemeroff’s hand.

Twenty-seven states have banned the recognition of homosexual marriages performed in other states in response to an impending ruling by Hawaii’s highest court that is expected to make that state the first to legalize same-sex marriages. Homosexual marriages are legal in Denmark, Sweden and Norway but are widely shunned in the United States.

Brown led the first 10 couples - all of whom have been together for at least 10 years, and some, like city Controller Ed Harrington and his partner Dan Scannell, for upwards of 25 - through their wedding vows.