San Francisco: 'My six children are all married'

It was hard to figure out just who was the happiest person in San Francisco City Atty. Dennis Herrera’s office Wednesday morning.

The man himself, who filed suit on the city’s behalf four years ago to challenge state marriage laws as unconstitutional and discriminatory against gays and lesbians? Helen Zia, 55, who was part of the suit and whom Herrera joined in marriage that morning with her partner Lia Shigemura, 50, in a book-lined room choked with cameras?

Or maybe it was Beilin Zia, 79, Helen’s diminutive mother, who signed the wedding license for her daughter and beamed and beamed as Herrera pronounced them “spouses for life” and the women slipped wedding bands on one another's fingers.

Beilin lives in Walnut Creek and has six children. Helen, she said, “is No. 2, but the last one to get married. I’m very happy now. My six children are all married. I’m very happy.”

-- Maria L. La Ganga