Prop. 8 entangles politics and marriage vows

County sees increase in same-sex marriage registrants
By Greg Thomas [ greg@hmbreview.com ]
Published/Last Modified on Thursday, Oct 23, 2008 - 11:24:55 am PDT

With Proposition 8 threatening to eliminate the right of same-sex couples to marry after Nov. 4, the San Mateo County Clerk’s office is registering a spike in applications for marriage licenses.

“We’ve been noticing that there was an increase in registrants,” said a county clerk in the marriage license unit who refused to give her full name. “It started this month in October, especially after Columbus Day.”

The clerk speculated that gay couples are “trying to make sure they can get married before Prop. 8 might pass.”

“They want to make sure they have the license,” she said. “They want to be on the safe side.”

Karen Hester, owner of Here Comes the Pride, an Oakland-based wedding officiate, said she has noticed a similar sentiment among gay couples in the Bay Area.

“What’s happening is that people who live here locally are getting worried about Prop. 8 so they’re running in and getting married before the fourth,” she said. “But I think what’s happening is that people from out of state who have to make more plans are waiting now to see if it’s going to pass. It’s swinging both ways in terms of the same-sex individuals.”

On the Coastside, marriage officiates have reported the reverse – very few reservations for same-sex marriages before the election.

“There are people that are waiting to marry after (the election),” said Christie Hardwick, Half Moon Bay Gay Weddings minister. But, she said, “no one (will be) marrying in celebration.”

“(With) every person I’ve talked to,” Hardwick explained, “what the state does is not going to make a difference to them or their commitment and literally they’ll take care of business somewhere else. I married in Massachusetts in 2006.

“This is not a political decision people are making,” she said. “It’s a personal decision.”

That may be true on a personal level, but when voters mark the ballot on Nov. 4, politics and lifestyles will collide.

On Oct. 16, county Supervisor Rich Gordon spoke at a rally at Old Courthouse Square in Redwood City to drive home Hardwick’s point for undecided voters.

“As an openly gay man who has been involved in the community for 28 years – that we’ve finally achieved a status of equality and that this proposition, if passed, would take away my rights – that would harm not only me but thousands of gay and lesbian couples who live in San Mateo County,” he said.

Gordon said he’s confident that people in the county “will understand that it is not justice to take away rights that people have,” but acknowledged that the issue is “a complete toss up” in the state.

As for gay couples in the county who had planned to marry at a date sometime after the election, Gordon said the political pressure has caused many to reschedule before it could be too late.

“They might have waited or done this next spring but they’re not going to take the chance,” he said. “Should the citizens of California take away these rights, they want to make sure that they’ve secured them first.”