UCCgaymarriage

Photo courtesy of Instagram user @wallybeara

Within an hour of the announcement that gay marriages could legally resume in California, all 11 of the Los Angeles County’s Registrar/Clerk offices closed for the weekend, seemingly cutting off the prospect of quickly planned nuptials in the region. But the County Clerk offices being closed didn’t stop several same-sex couples from becoming the first since the Supreme Court’s ruling on Proposition 8 to wed in Long Beach over the weekend.  

The first, Carole Mayhew and Toni Roldan of Sunland, were married Friday night at 9PM inside Edgewater Wedding Chapel in the bottom of the Breakers building on Ocean Blvd. Alan Katz–coordinator for Great Officiants, the company that operates Edgewater–told those in the room what a long-time coming the two’s legal union had been.

Mayhew and Roldan obtained a marriage license when Proposition 8 was initially overturned, but before their planned ceremony date had arrived, the courts reinstated the ban on gay marriage. As soon as they heard the news that the 9th District Court of Appeals lifted its stay Friday afternoon, they called Katz to schedule an evening ceremony.   

{loadposition latestnews}On Sunday, the same day that the Supreme Court rejected an emergency petition filed by Proposition 8 backers that argued against allowing gay marriages to resume so quickly, a second same-sex couple was married in Long Beach. 

While in town for its biennial national conference, the United Church of Christ hosted an impromptu wedding for one of its pastors and his partner at the Long Beach Convention Center. Before many of their friends and family who are in town for the conference, Reverend Dave Sigmund, pastor of Seaside Community United Church of Christ in Torrance, and his partner of ten years Jay Greaves, tied the knot 

The Reverend Susannah Davis, pastor of the men’s home church in Atlanta, co-officiated the service with the Reverend Mel White of Long Beach.

More gay marriages are anticipated in Long Beach Monday as the County Registrar opens for regular business, including the first to be officiated by Mayor Foster since the Supreme Court’s decision.

Read more:

{FG_GEOMAP [33.7665848,-118.19049380000001] FG_GEOMAP}