MATTHEW VAN DUSEN Star-Tribune staff writer | Posted: Friday, August 1, 2003 12:00 am
President George W. Bush and the Vatican can say what they want, some wedding cakes in Wyoming already have two grooms or two brides as ornaments.
Bush on Wednesday said the administration's lawyers were considering legislation to specify marriage as a union between a man and a woman. On Thursday, the Vatican announced a worldwide campaign against gay marriage.
In Wyoming, where gay marriage is not currently recognized, same-sex couples are tying the knot anyway.
Rev. Dianna Cole, the owner of I Do, I Do Weddings, a wedding facility and bridal shop in Casper, said Thursday she has married six same-sex couples in the five years she has been open. Other ministers in Casper, though it is not known how many, offer marriage services to gay couples.
"I almost put it in my ad this year," said Cole, a minister with the Progressive Universal Life Church of Sacramento, Calif.
"I think they have every right to have love in their life and that's what we're all here for," said Cole, who can arrange two grooms or two brides as wedding cake toppers for gay couples.
The marriages are not legally binding, according to Renea Vitto of the Natrona County Clerk's office. Vitto said about once a year people will call to ask if the county clerk offers marriage licenses to gay couples.
The lack of recognition does not prevent couples from exchanging vows.
Still, one gay, married woman in the Casper area, who asked to not be identified for fear her family would be harassed, said she is not seeking recognition of her vows from others.
She would like to have her partner share her health care benefits, something they cannot currently do.
"Families that already exist, it will allow them to have benefits," she said.
Joe Corrigan, the founder of United Gays and Lesbians of Wyoming, said he is "not kidding himself" that gay marriage will be recognized anytime soon in Wyoming.
When Bush and the Vatican make statements against gay unions, "it encourages other people to be discriminating against us," he said.
Father Bob Cook of Our Lady of Fatima, a Catholic Church in Casper, said the church does not seek to encourage discrimination.
"Gay people deserve full recognition of their dignity as human beings and we should always do that," Cook said.
Cook agrees with the Vatican's position, however, and said he would not like to see the government recognize same-sex unions since it would "tell young people that homosexual conduct is all right."
Charles Francis, a founder, with former U.S. Sen. Al Simpson, of the Republican Unity Coalition, a gay/straight alliance, said Vice President Dick Cheney outlined a good solution to the issue during the 2000 presidential campaign.
"I think different states are likely to come to different conclusions, and that's appropriate," Cheney said. "I think we ought to do everything we can to tolerate and accommodate whatever kind of relationships people want to enter into."