Emotions were high in Provincetown this morning after news broke of the Supreme Court’s decision to legalize same-sex marriages.
The Supreme Court ruled five to four in favor of marriage equality today in Washington. All fifty states will begin issuing marriage license for same-sex couples. The decision comes a little over 11 years after Massachusetts legalized gay marriage.
Sarah Carpenter is the Vice President of the Cape Cod chapter of PFLAG, an organization that offers outreach programs and support groups for LGBT people and their families. She was in Provincetown after the announcement was made and said the feeling of joy was palpable. “Everyone was smiling. There were people clapping. There were people hugging. Some of them were actually dancing in the street. Cars were stuck, they couldn’t even move. Every where you went there was a buzz of conversation. So upbeat. So happy… It was a long time coming and a lot of people have struggled to wait for this decision. It was a celebratory morning, and it hasn’t really shown any signs of subsiding.”
Orleans couple Gloria and Linda Bailey-Davies had been celebrating since 10 this morning when the decision was released.
“It’s almost more than we can take in, it really is," Gloria Bailey-Davies said. "Every time I think about it, or every time I want to say something about it, I’m just overwhelmed with emotion.”
Gloria and Linda were one of seven Massachusetts same-sex couples that sued the Department of Public Health in 2003 for denying them the right to marry. The couples won, and the Supreme Judicial court of Massachusetts ruled the ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional on November 18 of 2003.
The two married not long after, but never felt 100 percent safe traveling outside of Massachusetts. Other states that had not legalized same-sex marriage were not obligated to acknowledge the couple’s marital status until today.
“Linda’s family is in Florida, my family is up in Maine," Gloria Bailey-Davies said. "Many times we traveled into those states, and we always would take a big satchel of all our documents: marriage certificate, powers of attorney, our wills, living wills. We took everything with us, because we were terrified that those states would not recognize our marriage if we did not have all of those legal documents with us.”
Carpenter said today is a big day for the transgender community as well. Carpenter, who made the transition from male to female in 2005, said before the court decision she would not have been able to marry a man because her birth certificate identified her as male. “I was very happy because it’s a great step not just for gays and lesbians, but the transgender community. Something that gets lost in the discussion is that transgender men and women also take part in same-sex marriages. So this is a huge step for the entire community," she said.
Gay couples will now receive over a thousand of the same federal protections that opposite-sex couples currently receive. Carpenter said the decision will benefit the entire lesbian, gay and transgender community, especially LGBT youth. “Gay children, lesbian children, and transchildren have one less obstacle in front of them as they grow and mature and begin to follow and lead their lives the way they want to, and the way they know they need to," she said.
This is a big step toward equality, but Carpenter warned there is still work to be done for transgender people. Linda and Gloria agreed discrimination will not cease to exist, but today they are focusing on taking it all in.
