
Sinjoyla Townsend, left, and Angelisa Young walk through cheers and down the aisle as a married
couple on Tuesday, March 9, 2010, the first day that gay marriage is legal in Washington.
(AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin) (AP) After years of legal battles, same-sex couples in the District were finally able to walk down the aisle Tuesday on the first day gay marriages could legally be performed in Washington.
Angelisa Young, 47, and Sinjoyla Townsend, 41, were among the first to legally wed in D.C., during a morning ceremony at the Human Rights Campaign's national headquarters near Dupont Circle.
The couple have been together for 12 years and have two children. Young wore a cream-colored lace dress and Townsend a white pants suit as they exchanged their vows. "Tomorrow will come and I will be at your side...You are my rock," Townsend told Young before they presented each other with rings. They kissed to standing applause from the crowd of 120 teary-eyed attendees.
Other marriages taking place at the Human Rights Campaign on Tuesday included Reginald Stanley and Rocky Galloway, and Rev. Elder Darlene Garner and Rev. Lorilyn Candy Holmes. "Marriage is a gift. Up until this day the District of Columbia has been in denial," said the Rev. Dwayne Johnson during his passionate and politically-charged officiate of Holmes and Garner's ceremony. "We believe marriage is about freedom -- the freedom to choose the one you love regardless of external expectations and limits."
A bill to legalize gay marriage in the District was signed by Mayor Adrian Fenty in December, and after a 30-day congressional review process D.C. became the sixth jurisdiction in the country where same-sex unions are legal. Same-sex couples could apply for marriage licenses starting March 3.
After Tuesday's ceremonies, Fenty called the legalization of gay marriage a "great step forward." "It's tough to represent a city...but the six of you today do that," the mayor told the three newlywed couples. Councilman David Catania, one of the most outspoken advocates of gay marriage on the D.C. Council, said he was rendered uncharacteristically "speechless" by Tuesday's events.
"We never thought we would see this day in our lives when gay and lesbian couples would be treated equally in the nation's capital," said Catania, who one of two openly gay council members. The other, Councilman Jim Graham, told The Examiner that Tuesday's ceremonies represented "the last major frontier" for gay rights in the city. "D.C. is an enlightened enclave, better even than West Hollywood," he said.