Gay marriage becomes reality in Monroe County

By PRU SOWERS

KONK Life NEWS

 

In 2008, Florida residents voted to define marriage as a union only between men and women. In 2013, that vote was declared unconstitutional by a U.S. Court Judge. And the stroke of midnight on Tuesday, Jan. 7, William Lee Jones and Aaron Huntsman became the first same sex couple to be legally and lawfully wed in Monroe County.

 

A crowd of about 300, along with several other same sex couples who had registered for a marriage license earlier in the day, gathered on the courthouse lawn at the corner of Whitehead and Southard streets late Monday evening. Monroe County Clerk Amy Hevelin, who had been pre-registering gay couples for marriage licenses all day, gave the first legal marriage certificate to Jones and Huntsman in recognition of the legal battle they had fought to win the right to legally marry in Florida.

 

“I’m relieved that it’s almost here,” Jones said as he arrived with the wedding party in two electric carts festooned with white balloons at about 11 pm. “Highly relieved.”

 

“It seems surreal. It all happened so quickly. That’s what happens when you have a great legal team,” Huntsman said.

 

That legal team joined the grooms on the county courthouse steps shortly after midnight Tuesday as Rev. Steve Torrence performed the ceremony before the crowd of straight, gay and canine supporters.

 

“People who have struggled with you step by step are here today… to honor you,” Torrence said, referring to the crowd. “Love always perseveres.”

 

One of those supporters was local resident Mike Mongo, who was wearing a red, white and blue hat and reveling in the historic moment.

 

“It’s so crazy,” he said. “I’m 50. There was never a time since I was six years old when I thought I’d be able to marry the one I love. There’s a six year old inside me doing somersaults right now.”

 

Local boat captain Kevin “Foggy” Foley, married to his wife for 15 years, also came out Monday night to support Huntsman and Jones.

 

“This is a huge thing historically. They [the grooms] sacrificed a lot of stuff for this. I’m proud to be from Key West,” he said.

 

Joan Higgs and her partner of 33 years, Sandee Carlile, were also there. Life-long residents of Key West, they “ran away” to get married in New York City three years ago on their 30th anniversary.

 

“This is a watershed moment in human rights as far as I’m concerned,” Higgs said about the Jones-Huntsman legal battle for marriage equality.

 

“Because we want to show support for our community. I think it’s a beautiful moment,” said Diane Eliopolis, sales and marketing manager at Hard Rock Cafe on Duval Street, when asked why she went to the county courthouse around 11:30 pm. Earlier in the day she had helped manage a heterosexual wedding ceremony at Hard Rock. Tired from those duties, Eliopolis and her wife (they married in Provincetown, Mass., five years ago) took a nap around 8 pm to ensure they could make it to the historic festivities. “Now it will feel so much more authentic being legally married in our home state,” she said.

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