The Wedding Heard 'Round the World America's First Gay Marriage

Michael McConnell

eBook - 2016

On September 3, 1971, Michael McConnell and Jack Baker exchanged vows in the first legal same-sex wedding in the United States. Their remarkable story is told here for the first time—a unique account of the passion and energy of the gay liberation movement in the sixties and seventies. At the dawn of the modern gay movement (while New York's Stonewall riots and San Francisco's emerging political activism bloomed), these two young men insisted on making their commitment a legal reality. They were already crusaders for gay rights: Jack had twice been elected the University of Minnesota's student president—the first openly gay university student president in the country, an election reported by Walter Cronkite on network T...V news. They were featured in Look magazine's special issue about the American family and received letters of support from around the world. The couple navigated complex procedures to obtain a state-issued marriage... more