The ceremony, arranged in great haste, was brief and held behind the closed doors of a dreary municipal office. Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon, a lesbian couple together for 50 years, stood facing each other and beamed when a city official pronounced them not husband and wife but "spouses for life.''
They had not become domestic partners, or joined in a civil union. The couple, both pioneering activists in the gay rights movement, had signed full-fledged marriage licenses and been wed with San Francisco's official blessing, a momentous step that city leaders said has no precedent.
Word of the wedding -- which took place after San Francisco's new mayor, Gavin Newsom, defied state law earlier this week and asked city clerks to remove all references to gender on local marriage forms -- spread fast. By Thursday evening, San Francisco's ornate City Hall had begun to resemble a one-of-a-kind wedding chapel as city officials married about 80 gay couples who had rushed there to exchange vows.
Newsom's sudden move to sanction same-sex marriage, a decision that some politically conservative groups are denouncing as illegal and vowing to stop through the courts, comes as national debate over the issue is rippling through statehouses, the White House and the Democratic presidential primary races.
In Massachusetts, opponents of gay marriage were attempting to enact a constitutional amendment to overturn a state Supreme Court decision allowing gays to marry. Earlier this week, aides indicated that President Bush would soon endorse a constitutional amendment that would define marriage solely as a union between a man and a woman. On Thursday, the Virginia House of Delegates gave preliminary approval to legislation that would ban the recognition of same-sex civil unions and domestic partnerships.
California, and particularly liberal San Francisco, has some of the nation's broadest protections for gay couples, but it does not sanction gay marriage. In 2000, voters backed a ballot measure that in effect banned the practice.
But Newsom, a 36-year-old Democrat who was inaugurated last month, said that he decided to change San Francisco's marriage regulations because he was convinced that they violated the state Constitution, which he said "leaves no room for any form of discrimination.'' He said that he began thinking about making the changes after listening to Bush disparage gay marriage in his State of the Union address last month.
Mark Leno, an openly gay Democratic state legislator who represents San Francisco, called the flurry of weddings "an act of civil disobedience."
Newsom did not participate in any of the impromptu wedding ceremonies, but he issued a statement saying: "Today a barrier to justice has been removed. A barrier removed for one person is a barrier removed for us all.''
Newsom sent a letter Tuesday to the San Francisco County clerk's office asking that the documents local couples fill out to obtain marriage licenses be changed in all ways necessary to allow gay or lesbian couple to be legally wed. Upon hearing that opponents of the move were planning to seek a court injunction against it as early as Friday, his administration rushed in to make the changes in times for ceremonies to be held Thursday and alerted a few gay rights groups, which in turn notified prospective couples.
Martin and Lyons, the first gay couple to be wed, were asked to participate in the first ceremony because of their local stature. They have been prominent activists for gay rights in San Francisco for decades and founded one of the country's first gay advocacy groups. But other couples hurried to City Hall after hearing news reports or receiving e-mails about the event. City officials married some of them inside the assessor's office and others in the middle of the building's grand rotunda.
Small groups gathered to watch and erupted in cheers after vows were exchanged. Outside City Hall, a few dozen gay rights activists rallied in support of the ceremonies and at one point began singing the Bob Dylan anthem "The Times, They Are A-Changin'.''
"I've been trying to get married for so long, I feel like I'm dreaming,'' said Molly McKay, who took part in a ceremony with her partner, Davina Kotulski.
"I feel kind of giddy and proud,'' said Mike Kabler, 31, a law student who married his partner, Kevin Fox, 34.
But opponents of gay marriage said the couples were being fooled and derided Newsom's step as a political stunt.
"This clearly violates state law,'' said state Sen. William J. "Pete'' Knight, a Republican who sponsored the 2000 ballot measure blocking gay marriage. "It's nothing more than a sideshow. These marriages have no force of law, and I hope they're telling these couples that. The mayor just can't change a law because he disagrees with it.''
Gay activists vowed to defend San Francisco's action. "This is a civil rights movement from coast to coast that touches real people and will not stop until equality is achieved," said Evan Wolfson, executive director of the group Freedom to Marry.
As couples arrived to get married and other lined up for marriage license papers, Martin, 83, and Lyon, 79, avoided the celebrations around City Hall and went home after their private ceremony. Afterward, Lyon said that she was sure the ceremonies would be challenged in court and was uncertain if they would be upheld. "God knows what's going to happen,'' she said.
But she said that she and Martin, who will celebrate their 51st anniversary together on Valentine's Day, were proud -- and amazed -- by what they had been at last allowed to do.
"Things are happening that we never dreamed of,'' Lyon said.
Dignan is a special correspondent. Sanchez reported from Los Angeles. Special correspondent Kimberly Edds in Los Angeles contributed to this report.
Phyllis Lyon, left, and Del Martin, who have been together for
50 years, embrace after their wedding at San Francisco City Hall.Jim Nickoff, right, and Dave Lawson, both of San Francisco, get papers from a clerk to apply for a marriage license at City Hall in San Francisco. The application was changed to eliminate gender references.
