Pennsylvania: Mayor of Braddock performs first same-sex marriage

This will probably push the marriage equality issue further into the public square.

Braddock Mayor John Fetterman performed a marriage ceremony for John Kandray and Bill Grey last night.

The couple that was married knows that neither the Pennsylvania nor the federal government may recognize their marriage, but they say one day they hope it will be recognized by both.

“Showing our commitment to each other,” Gray said, “which we’ve been at that point for a long time, just now we can prove it.”

When they heard that Montgomery County was issuing licenses to same-sex couples, they went across the state to get one. And then they heard Braddock Mayor John Fetterman was willing to marry them.

“I just think it’s time people in Pennsylvania say, Mr. Corbett, you know, tear down this law,” Fetterman said. “DOMA is a fundamentally unjust piece of legislation.”

“We pay the same taxes, we do everything the same, but we don’t have the same rights,” Kandray said.

“It felt like, you know what, let’s stand up for ourselves and do this,” he added.

So at the mayor’s home and in front of the couple’s family and friends, they exchanged rings and were married by the mayor.

Last month the ACLU filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn Pennsylvania's ban on same-sex marriage.

(source)