Santa Ana: 'We just wanted to be part of this beautiful day'

Just outside the clerk’s office at the old county courthouse in Santa Ana, Karen S. Stoyanoff, Lee Marie Sanchez and Rayna Hamre offered to officiate the wedding of any couple who asked.

Stoyanoff, a minister at Orange Coast Unitarian Universalist Church, wore a black robe and stole emblazoned with the symbols of different faiths.

For the last 15 years, she has performed nearly a dozen commitment ceremonies in Illinois and California. She remembers details from each one. The first was a backyard ceremony in suburban Chicago; one bride wore a tailored pantsuit, the other wore a breezy summer dress.

Today, most couples who wanted a ceremony brought their own officiants. Others said their vows sitting at a desk across from a county employee. Stoyanoff and her friend said they’d wait around a few hours just in case someone needed them.

“We just wanted to be part of this beautiful day,” Stoyanoff said. “Today means we’ve moved forward to justice.”

-- Paloma Esquivel

Comments

[Karen Anderson]

I am a member of the Orange Coast Unitarian Universalist Church and I couldn't be prouder that our Minister is at the Courthouse along with two others offering to officiate at marriages for free. In addition, our church is offering to waive the rental fee for marriages at our church this month; we are celebrating this historic moment with the many couples who have prohibited from marriage - until now. It is time for all adults who want to marry to be able to; this is a celebration of the power of love.

I am also very proud to be a Californian. On this matter, California is one of the leaders. The is the next frontier in Civil Rights and equality for all.

[Dan Noel]

Behind the legalization of gay and lesbian marriage lies a perplexing problem. Experts in medicine, psychology and sexuality determined decades ago that homosexual love was a normal human condition and that same-sex relationships were just as normal as heterosexual ones. Why didn’t the government relay their findings and educate “us the people” into embracing equal marriage at that time, when the need for it became obvious? Now that the government has at last made the sensible decision of opening marriage to homosexual couples, why is it seriously contemplating undoing it?
This inertia is caused by ineptitude at best, corruption at worst. Either way, the belated and half-hearted legalization of equal marriage unmistakably shows that public service does not rank high on the government’s priority list. This ought to be of great concern to all public employees, starting with elected officials, and to all discerning citizens.
Love,