Richard JohnBaker[10] and James Michael McConnell[11] are the first same-sex marriage couple[12] known to obtain a marriage license,[13] have the contract formalized on September 3, 1971, then added to the public record.[14] Local officials waited more than 47 years to file their claim, retroactively,[2][15] only after it was "declared to be in all respects valid."[16]
The couple met in 1966. On March 10, 1967 – Baker's 25th birthday – McConnell agreed to be "his lover"[17] but only if it meant "a commitment . . . for the long haul," living openly as a married couple.[18] That commitment continued long after "52 Years Since Same-sex Marriage Milestone".[19]
Early years
James Michael McConnell was born in Norman, Oklahoma on May 19, 1942. He learned self-pride from his Baptist parents, who raised him with love.[15] After graduating from Norman High School, he attended the University of Oklahoma (OU), ending with a Master of Library Science degree in June 1968.[18]
Baker was born in Chicago on March 10, 1942. While in kindergarten, even after mother died, then father, his teacher described him as "very bright" and "anxious to learn".[21] Along with three siblings, he was delivered by the "State of Illinois, Department of Public Welfare, Child Welfare Services" to Maryville Academy[22] in Des Plaines, Illinois,[18] on "9_4_48" and accepted as "boarders" to receive "service" and Catholic "schooling". He remained in its "care and custody" for almost 11 years, completing grades 2-12.[17]
While on active duty (four years) in the U.S. Air Force, Baker was accepted in the Airmen Education Commissioning Program and stationed at OU, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Engineering.[23][24] He returned to Norman as a civilian, met McConnell,[25] and invited him to hang out. With reluctance, his friend agreed to enter into a serious relationship.[17] Baker also later received a Master's degree in May 1968.[18]
FREE activism
In 1969, weeks before the Stonewall riots in New York City,[26][27][28] Koreen Phelps recruited local friends to join her outreach program sponsored by Minnesota Free University.[29] Robert Halfhill, a graduate student who attended her lecture, wanted more than "just a social organization". He left, determined to organize a team of gay activists[30] on the Minneapolis campus of the University of Minnesota.
Jack Baker,[5] a law student, was elected to serve as president.[31] Moving aggressively[32] and openly, FREE eventually transformed Minneapolis into a "mecca for gays",[33] with members soon endorsing McConnell's dream of same-sex marriage.[19]
When a faculty committee qualified the members to receive all privileges enjoyed by student groups,[34] it became "the first student gay organization to gain recognition in the upper mid-west."[35] Its "leaders [believed] it to be the first such organization on a Big Ten campus", and the second such organization in the United States, following the Student Homophile League[36] recognized by Columbia University in 1967.[37]
One member asked five major companies with local offices to explain their attitudes toward gay men and women. Three responded quickly, insisting that they did not discriminate against gay people in their hiring policies. Honeywell objected to hiring "a known homosexual."[38] Later in the decade, when faced with a denial of access to students, Honeywell reversed its hiring policy.
In 1971, Baker campaigned[39][40] to become president[41] of the Minnesota Student Association at the University of Minnesota. Once elected,[42] he hired Gail Karwoski as his communications director and, one year later, won re-election.[43] The regents consented to his campaign promise and invited one student to sit with each committee as a non-voting member. That practice proved to be popular and became policy.[44]
The birth of PRIDE
In 1971, Members of FREE from Gay House invited friends to meet at picnics in Loring Park, near Downtown Minneapolis. Such events, which encouraged self-pride, began in mid-June as a prelude to local celebrations of Independence Day.[32]Thom Higgins, Prime Archon of the Church of the Chosen People, crafted Gay Pride[28] for the banner that would lead the crowd as it encouraged allies, supporters and bystanders to punish[45] the Catholic archbishop of Saint Paul and Minneapolis for his public condemnation of both the gay life-style and self-pride as sinful.
At the time, Jack was the chair of the Target City Coalition, parent corporation for The Gay Pride Committee, which sponsored the Festival of Pride each June.[47] Such celebrations spread and became the PRIDE tradition[28] that thrives today in cities throughout the United States.
In 1973, FREE continued working with University of Minnesota faculty to protect gay students from discrimination.[48] Central Administration approved the final draft of a new policy in 1972 and the Campus Committee on Placement Services began accepting complaints of unequal treatment by employers recruiting on campus. A member of FREE[49] received class credit for documenting his youth and why he supported America's first gay marriage, which was featured on WCCO-TV.[50]
Same-sex marriage activism
When a modern movement for "marriage equality" emerged from the University of Minnesota, it attracted extensive media attention,[51] including appearances on the Phil Donahue Show;[52] Kennedy & Co. (WLS-TV, Chicago IL); and David Susskind Show[53] (New York, NY). After a professor of history, Allan Spear, mocked them as the "lunatic fringe",[54][55] admiration among peers spread locally[56]
McConnell and Baker applied[57] for a marriage license.[58] After the Clerk of District Court refused their request, they filed a "motion for the issuance of a writ of mandamus to require . . . the Clerk . . . to issue a marriage license . . ."[59] Denial in the lower court[60] was affirmed by the Minnesota Supreme Court.[61] However, before the final opinion was published, McConnell re-applied – in a different county – and received a marriage license.[62]
Same-sex marriage as a civil right
Baker and McConnell (r) at their Minneapolis home, 1970
Speaking to members of the Ramsey County Bar Association, Baker argued that same-sex unions are "not only authorized by the U.S. Constitution" but are mandatory.[63] Later, Baker spoke[64] to a forum of more than 2,000 at the University of Winnipeg, which Richard North, activist, credited as the start of a "fight [by same-sex couples in Canada] to be married"[65] legally.
In 2012, Benjamin Todd Jealous, president of the NAACP, called same-sex marriage the "civil rights issue of our times"[66] and Baker insisted that "the conclusion was intuitively obvious to a first-year law student."[67]
Courts debate their marriage
McConnell's marriage to Baker depended on how Minnesota interpreted its laws.[57] Early results[68] were not favorable. An appeal sponsored by the Minnesota Civil Liberties Union[69] was accepted[a] by the U.S. Supreme Court,[70] which dismissed it[71][72] with a one-sentence order[73] on October 10, 1972: "The appeal is dismissed for want of a substantial federal question."[74]
Their joint tax return for 1973 was rejected by the Internal Revenue Service.[75] Likewise, the Veterans Administration rejected McConnell's request for spousal benefits.[76] Undaunted, McConnell listed Baker as an adopted "child" on his tax returns for which he received a deduction as head of household from 1974 through 2004. That benefit ended when Congress limited the deduction to an individual under the age of 19.[77]
The Hennepin County Attorney convened a grand jury to investigate a potential "crime" committed by Rev. Lynn. He studied the legality of the marriage but found the question not worth pursuing.[82]
The Family Law Reporter argued in 1974 that Baker v. Nelson[a] could not annul a marriage contract that was validated "a full six weeks" before the decision was filed.[83] Professor Thomas Kraemer argued that FREE had hosted "the first same-sex couple in history to be legally married".[84]
On September 18, 2018, a district court judge in Blue Earth County declared "The [1971] marriage . . . to be in all respects valid" and ordered the Clerk of Court to record it.[16] Their marriage remained unrecognized by the Social Security Administration until validated by a local court.[85]
Synopsis
When Baker enrolled as a law student in late 1969, he began pursuing his promise to obtain a legal right to marry.[17][70][18] He and McConnell, a librarian, became gay rights activists in the U.S. state of Minnesota from 1969 to 1980. After being refused in their first attempt to obtain a marriage license in Hennepin County in early 1970,[86] Baker was legally adopted by McConnell in early August 1971 and changed his legal name to Pat Lyn McConnell (although he continued to use "Jack Baker" as his political persona). They then applied for a marriage license in a different county (Blue Earth County) on August 9, 1971, which was issued on August 16, 1971. After the wedding ceremony was held on September 3, 1971, they were often invited to appear and speak at colleges, schools, businesses and churches in the U.S. and Canada. Their marriage was not recorded or recognized as legal by the local government, various courts, the IRS or the Veterans Administration until a state district court in Blue Earth County affirmed its legality on September 18, 2018.[87]
On October 15, 1971, the Minnesota Supreme Court in Baker v. Nelson affirmed a court clerk's refusal on May 22, 1970[88] to issue them a marriage license in Hennepin County for the sole reason that it would undermine "the entire legal concept of our family structure in all areas of law"[89] (despite this not being identified in Minnesota law[57] as a reason for prohibiting such a marriage). Their appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court in October 1971 was accepted[a] but later dismissed on October 10, 1972. Though the "precise issue"[90] was not disclosed, their marriage contract, lawfully obtained but never invalidated,[13] affected the decision.
Baker and McConnell (and others) have asserted that neither the state supreme court decision nor the U.S. Supreme Court dismissal directly affected the validity of their marriage, because although they were refused a marriage license in Hennepin County, they had successfully obtained one from Blue Earth County and were married using that license before the Minnesota Supreme Court affirmed the Hennepin County clerk's refusal to issue them a license.[16] Because the Minnesota Supreme Court had not directly addressed the validity of their marriage in Blue Earth County, and their marriage had never officially been declared nullified, a district court ultimately agreed with that view in 2018 – despite the fact that the marriage was not previously recorded or recognized by the state.[16]
Vindication in later years
Baker, McConnell (2016)
The couple obtained a valid marriage license before the rejection in Hennepin County was appealed to and accepted[a] by the U.S. Supreme Court. Though that case ended in 1972, "for want of a substantial federal question",[71] other challenges followed as they pursued affirmation of their union while living openly as a married couple.[70]
In 1972, Baker led the Gay Rights Caucus at the state convention of the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party, the affiliate of the national Democratic Party in the state of Minnesota. The caucus persuaded delegates to endorse "legislation defining marriage as a civil contract between any two adults".[91] That vote became the "first known case" of support by a major United States political party for same-sex marriage.
In 2003, Baker and McConnell amended their individual tax returns for the year 2000, filing jointly as a couple, offering proof of a valid marriage license from Blue Earth County. The IRS challenged the validity of the marriage and argued that, even if the license were valid, the Defense of Marriage Act prohibits the IRS from recognizing it. When McConnell brought suit, the U.S. District Court for Minnesota upheld[92] the IRS ruling and the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed, saying that McConnell could not re-litigate a question decided previously.
In 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court answered the question they had dismissed in 1972: "Do same-sex couples have a constitutional right to get married?"[93] In the case of Obergefell v. Hodges, the court concluded that this right does exist, because all citizens have an inherent right to marry the adult of their choice, overturning the Minnesota Supreme Court's opinion in Baker v. Nelson, which had been accepted as precedent. As a "friend of the court",[94] the Attorney General of Minnesota agreed that the Minnesota Supreme Court's prior "procreation rationale" did not support its prohibition of same-sex marriage.
Employment discrimination at the University of Minnesota
In 1970, the University Librarian invited Michael McConnell to head the Cataloging Division on the university's St. Paul campus.[95] The board of regents refused to approve[96] the offer after McConnell applied for a marriage license, and regent Daniel Gainey asserted that "homosexuality is about the worst thing there is."[97]
McConnell sued and prevailed in federal District Court.[98] The board appealed to the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals,[99] which agreed with the university that it had not restricted free speech. Instead, it ruled that McConnell was to blame for wanting to implement his "controversial ideas" and foist tacit approval of his "socially repugnant concept" on his employer.[100] More than 80%[101] of University of Minnesota students disagreed with the regents' behavior.
Hennepin County Library, then a diverse and growing system of 26 facilities, hired McConnell. After 37 years of service, McConnell retired as a Coordinating Librarian with gratitude expressed publicly.[102]
In 2012, University of Minnesota president Eric Kaler offered McConnell a personal apology for the "reprehensible"[103] treatment endured from the board of regents in 1970. McConnell accepted his assurances[104] and agreed to join the Heritage Society[105] of the President's Club.
^ abcdThe U.S. Supreme Court was required to accept an appeal of a state court's opinion as a matter of right, a practice that the Supreme Court Case Selections Act ended in 1988 (Public Law 100-352, 100th Congress).
References
^Before 1970, no wedding conducted without a legal license was a marriage, even if blessed in a church.
Source: Black's Law Dictionary, Revised Fourth Edition, West Publishing Co. (1968).
(page 1123) MARRIAGE: Marriage, as distinguished from the agreement to marry and from the act of becoming married, is the civil status, condition, or relation of [two parties] united in law for life, for the discharge to each other and the community of the duties legally incumbent on those whose association is founded on the distinction of sex. 1 Bish.Mar. & Div. § 3; Collins v Hoag & Rollins, 121 Neb. 716, 238 N.W. 351, 355; Allen v. Allen, 73 Conn. 54, 46 A. 242, 49 L.R.A. 142.
(page 1124) MARRIAGE CERTIFICATE: An instrument which certifies a marriage, and is executed by the person officiating at the marriage; it is not intended to be signed by the parties. Spencer v. Spencer, 84 Misc.Rep. 264, 147 N.Y.S. 111, 113.
^Diplomas: "Bachelor of Arts" (June 4, 1967) and "Master of Library Science" (June 2, 1968), Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education
^Diploma: "High School", Board of Education (June 2, 1960)
^ abcAs a student body president, elected 1971 and re-elected 1972, he was known by different names.
March 10, 1942: Richard John Baker, Certificate of Birth;
September 1, 1969: Jack Baker, name adopted to lead activists demanding gay equality;
August 3, 1971: Pat Lyn McConnell, married name; by Decree of Adoption;
Sources: McConnell Files, "Full Equality, a diary", (volumes 6a–b), Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies, University of Minnesota Libraries.
^Diploma: "Juris Doctor", The Regents of The University of Minnesota (December 13, 1972)
Certificate: "Richard J. Baker . . . was . . . duly admitted and qualified as an Attorney and Counsellor of the Supreme Court of the United States . . ." Clerk of the Supreme Court of the United States (May 14, 1990)
^Diploma: "Master of Business Administration", Higher Learning Commission (May 18, 1968)
^Diploma: "Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering", Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education (June 6, 1965)
^Diploma: "High School", Catholic School Board (June 7, 1959)
Michael McConnell (75) and husband Jack Baker (75) talk with friend Lisa Vecoli (55) about having the first same-sex marriage legally recognized by a U.S. civil government in 1971, why they chose to get married, and what the response to their marriage was like.
JB describes the decades-long (46-year) process from the denial of their marriage license in 1971 until a second request that same year in Blue Earth County, Minnesota, was "declared to be in all respects valid" by Order of Gregory J. Anderson, Judge of District Court.
^ abcNewsletter, "Hidden Treasures from the Stacks", The National Archives at Kansas City, p. 6 (September 2013).
^Their wedding became "the earliest same-sex marriage ever to be recorded in the public files of any civil government."
Source: Eskridge, William N. Jr.; Riano, Christopher R. (2020). Marriage Equality From Outlaws to In-Laws. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN9780300221817. Chapter 24.
^ abcd"The September 3, 1971 marriage of James Michael McConnell and Pat Lyn McConnell, a/k/a Richard John Baker, has never been dissolved or annulled by judicial decree and no grounds currently exist on which to invalidate the marriage."
Sources: CONCLUSIONS OF LAW by Assistant Chief Judge Gregory Anderson, Fifth Judicial District, (page 4);
Copy: Minnesota Judicial Branch, File Number 07-CV-16-4559, "Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law and Order for Partial Summary Judgment" from Blue Earth County District Court in re James Michael McConnell et al. v. Blue Earth County et al. (September 18, 2018);
McConnell Files, "America’s First Gay Marriage" (binder #4), Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies, U of M Libraries.
^ abcdSources: McConnell Files, "Full Equality, a diary" (volumes 5a–e and 8c), Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies, University of Minnesota Libraries.
September 4, 1948: To ensure that the remaining four of ten children – two boys and two girls – remained together, Baker was allowed to enter the second grade at age 6 and graduate from high school at age 17, a stay of almost 11 years.
March 10, 1967: On Baker's 25th Birthday, McConnell insisted that he would accept Baker's invitation to commit as lovers if, and only if, he could find a way for the relationship to be recognized as a "legal" marriage.
^ abcdeMcConnel, Michael (November 2013). "Marriage – my childhood dream comes true"(PDF). Retrieved October 27, 2023. Jack asked me to be his lover. I was now ready to state what I wanted in a commitment: live openly and not repeat the mistakes of my previous relationships. I was in it for the long haul, whatever that took. I wanted marriage – not with 'secret' rings recognized by a circle of mostly closeted friends. Jack agreed to make it happen.
^ abcPress release – "Minnesota Hosts First Legally Sanctioned Same-Sex Marriage", Minnesota Student Association (September 7, 1971). See also: Press release – FREE (May 17, 1970).
September 3, 2023: Video posted online by CBS News Minnesota;
"Minneapolis church marks 52nd anniversary of first legally-recognized same-sex marriage in US history" by
Jason Rantala, "52 Years Since Same-sex Marriage Milestone".
^York, Mailing Address: 26 Wall Street Federal Hall National Monument c/o Stonewall National Monument New; Us, NY 10005 Phone: 212-668-2577 Contact. "Stonewall National Monument (U.S. National Park Service)". www.nps.gov. Retrieved June 5, 2019.((cite web)): CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
^ abc"I am in the orange range, 16 years old. This was the first gay rights march in the country that had a headline banner "Gay Pride". The following year all the marches adopted this and everyone called it Gay Pride. The banner was made by a friend, Thom Higgins, . . . Thom and I dated, [became] friends in 1980."
Egil Jonsson, comments and posting of his copy of Jim Chalgren's 'Gay Pride' photo on his Facebook page (February 29, 2012; re-post on June 24, 2019).
Sources: McConnell Files, "America's First Gay Marriage" (Gift #13), Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies, University of Minnesota Libraries. Binders #7, #7a
MEMORANDUM for the record (19 May 2021). Some credit New York City, as "the cradle of the modern LGBT rights movement". However, the Stonewall riots there were a response to police harassment and were neither "Gay Pride" celebrations nor demands for "gay marriage", both of which began in Minneapolis and spread from there.
"Gay Pride" appears on fliers waved by a few individuals in a march entitled "Gay and Proud", which was promoted by its sponsors as "the first Christopher Street Liberation Day Parade, held in New York City, New York, on June 28, 1970, to commemorate the first anniversary of the Stonewall Riots." Source: video; available online from the Library of Congress.
Stonewall leadership decided to change its commemoration of the riots to a celebration of "Gay Pride" after Thom Higgins, formerly a monk before joining FREE, coined the term for that purpose.
^Minnesota Free University: 529 Cedar Avenue, in the Cedar Riverside Neighborhood of Minneapolis, separate from but near the University of Minnesota's expanding campus on the West Bank of the Mississippi.
New course: K. A. Phelps ["Koreen" Phelps], "The Homosexual Revolution", Bulletin No. 5 (May 18, 1969).
Group title: "Fight Repression of Erotic Expression"
Source: McConnell Files, Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies, University of Minnesota Libraries
^"Halfhill steered the group through the administrative channels needed to establish FREE as a student group".
Source: Bruce Johasen, "Out of Silence", Minnesota History, page 189 (Spring 2019).
^Neal R. Peirce, "The Great Plains States of America: People, Politics, and Power in the Nine Great Plains States", George J. McLeod (1973), 145. Available online, accessed February 7, 2014
^ ab"[I was] really upset with Jack. . . . the right to get married was just a publicity stunt. I was really angry about that and felt that Jack was an opportunist and really in it for himself . . . with Jack being this sort of benevolent dictator."
Source: "Interview with Koreen Phelps (1993-11-05)". By Scott Paulsen, "Twin Cities Gay and Lesbian Community Oral History Project", Minnesota Historical Society (page 14).
^Lily Hansen, GAY, "F.R.E.E. At Last" (May 11, 1970), 13.
See also, the Introduction by Ken Bronson, "A Quest for Full Equality" (2004). Available online from University of Minnesota Libraries.
^Wayne R. Dynes, "Homosexuality and Government, Politics and Prisons" (1992), 248.
Letter to FREE from Vice President Gerry E. Morse, Honeywell Inc. (June 29, 1970).
Victory: Lars Bjornson, "A quiet win: Honeywell yields", The Advocate, 13 (April 10, 1974).
Anon., "Three big companies say they hire Gays", The Advocate (September 30, 1970).
Sources: McConnell Files, "Full Equality, a diary" (volumes 1a - d), Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies, University of Minnesota Libraries.
^"Mama D joined a collection of patriotic icons in this campaign poster for Jack Baker, the first openly gay student body president at the University of Minnesota."
Source: Bill Huntzicker, "Dinkytown: Four Blocks of History", History Press, page 161 (2016), plus
a campaign poster featuring Mama D: "Jack Baker Comes Out – for Things That Count!".
^Student dignity is "a state of mind that forces students to realize their own self-worth and to search out a new self respect," Baker said in a recent policy statement.
News: Anon., "Law senior elected U. student president", Associated Press. Re-printed in Austin Daily Herald, page ? (7 April 1972).
Sources: McConnell Files, "Full Equality, a diary" (volumes 6a - b), Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies, University of Minnesota Libraries.
^"In electing members of the Board of Regents pursuant to article 13, section 3, of the Constitution of the state of Minnesota, and Territorial Laws 1851, chapter 3, section 5, one member of the Board of Regents of the university shall be a person who at the time of election to the board is a student who is enrolled in a degree program at the university. This person shall represent the state at large. Upon expiration of the term or in the event of a vacancy in the office, one position shall be filled by a person having the same qualifications."
UNIVERSITY STUDENT ON BOARD OF REGENTS.
Available online from 2021 Minnesota Statutes, Chapter 137, Section 137.023 (amending chapter 120, section 1, 1976).
^"The wrenching bankruptcy that forced a reckoning on the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis for decades of clergy sexual abuse has culminated in a $210 million settlement for roughly 450 victims, the largest of its kind nationwide."
Star Tribune (June 1, 2018), A1.
Sources: McConnell Files, "Full Equality, a diary" (volume 8b), Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies, University of Minnesota Libraries, Minneapolis.
^Photo by Jim Chalgren (June 1973). Courtesy: Jean-Nickolaus Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies, University of Minnesota Libraries, Minneapolis.
^Source: Ken Bronson, "A Quest for Full Equality" (2004), p. 38.
Available online from University of Minnesota Libraries, Minneapolis.
^"I appreciate your willingness to serve on the Campus Committee on Placement Services."
Letter from Malcolm Moos, University of Minnesota, mailed to Jack Baker and others (February 11, 1971).
^Ken Kurtenbach (Gotebo High School), "Human Relations", University of Minnesota Media Resources;
posted by Brandon Wolf on YouTube. GUIDE: If the documentary does not appear on your screen, copy-n-paste the hyperlink into a different browser.
Sources: Memoir of Michael McConnell, as told to Gail Langer Karwoski, "The Wedding Heard 'Round the World: America's First Gay Marriage", University of Minnesota Press (2016) and paperback release "with a new epilogue" (2020).
^"WCCO's Dave Moore takes a look at the evolving gay liberation movement of the early '70s, including a look at the marriage of Jack Baker and Mike McConnell."
Dave 'Moore On Sunday', "Tackles Gay Rights" (September 30, 1973),
posted online by WCCO - CBS Minnesota.
^Jack Star, "The Homosexual Couple," Look (January 26, 1971), 69–71;
also Michael Durham, "Homosexuals in revolt", Life (December 31, 1971), 68.
Sources: McConnell Files (Gift #6), Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies, University of Minnesota Libraries.
^David von Drehle, "Gay Marriage Already Won", Time (April 8, 2013), 22.
^BAKER: "We got quite a bit of criticism, and very few people were actually supporting us. But I figured, well, history would speak for itself." [Text from the transcript]
Source: StoryCorps, as heard on National Public Radio, "Morning Edition" (October 14, 2022).
Search online for "How Jack Baker and Michael McConnell became husbands in 1971".
Sources: The McConnell Files, "Full Equality, a diary" [volume 7e], Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies, University of Minnesota Libraries.
^ abc"Minnesota Statutes Annotated", West Publishing Co. (1970)
Chapter 517.01: Marriage a civil contract. "Marriage, so far as its validity in law is concerned, is a civil contract, to which the consent of the parties, capable in law of contracting, is essential."
Chapter 517.03: Marriages prohibited. [The list of prohibited marriages did not include parties of the same gender.]
^Jack Baker, as told to Helen Barrett, "We had America's first gay marriage – in 1971", Financial Times Magazine (August 7, 2015).
^Baker and McConnell -vs- [Clerk of District Court] Geral R. Nelson.
Source: R. Michael Wetherbee, Attorney for Plaintiffs, "PLAINTIFFS' MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF MOTION".
Copies: Minnesota Judicial Branch, Hennepin County District Court, Fourth Judicial District, File No. 671379.
News: Associated Press, "Marriage Is Out", Kansas City Star (May 24, 1970), 30A.
^"IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that said motion be and the same hereby is denied."
Source: Judge Stanley Kane, "ORDER" (December 2, 1970)
News: Anon., "Gay Marriage Plea Is Denied", St. Paul Pioneer Press (November 19, 1970), 27.
^"The institution of marriage as a union of man and woman, uniquely involving the procreation or rearing of children within a family, is as old as the book of Genesis".
Author: Justice C. Donald Peterson, Baker v. Nelson, 291 Minn. 310, 191 N.W.2d 185, 186 (October 15, 1971).
News: Anon., "Court Won't Let Men Wed", The New York Times (January 10, 1971), 65.
"Chris Vogel and Rich North of Winnipeg were the first gay couple to legally marry in Canada." [From an interview by Canadian Museum for Human Rights posted online by CBC (Canada, 2004).]
Letter is posted online, courtesy of the McConnell Files, University of Minnesota Libraries.
News: Mia Rabson, "Couple helped make history", Winnipeg Free Press, A4 (September 17, 2004).
^Source: Lavers, Michael K., "NAACP president: Marriage is civil rights issue of our times" Washington Blade (May 21, 2012).
News: Associated Press, "They're Mr. and Mr.", San Francisco Chronicle (September 8, 1971), 3.
^The American Civil Liberties Union refused a request for legal support after its leadership showed "little or no enthusiasm" for gay marriage.
Source: Letter from Norman Dorsen, General Counsel for ACLU (1970). Published by Jason Smith, "Gay Pride Block Party Case", Friends of the Bill of Rights Foundation (January 2012), page 52.
Context: According to Professor Thomas Kraemer [Oregon State University], early gay activists [in New York City] "were mostly interested in sexual freedom and gay liberation".
Source: Tom's OSU, "Jack Baker deserves mainstream press coverage after gay marriage ruling" (July 7, 2012).
^"So when [our attorney] submitted the adoption papers in Hennepin county, Judge Lindsay Arthur listened to the arguments of J. Michael McConnell's adoption of Pat Lyn McConnell. . . . Judge Arthur signed off on our adoption papers on August 3, 1971."
^"In 1971, the first ever same sex marriage took place. One man, made that possible. Reverend Roger Lynn is a minister who officiated the first gay wedding. This is a video to honor him and his significance in gay rights and equality."
Source: Logan Chelmo, search online for "Honoring Rev. Roger Lynn" (posted June 6, 2021).
Edited copy courtesy of University of Minnesota Libraries
^"Pastor Roger Lynn holds up Baker and McConnell's marriage certificate" from the ceremony he conducted in Minneapolis.
Source: Claire Bowes, "Jack Baker and Michael McConnell: Gay Americans who married in 1971" (July 3, 2013).
Anon., "Homosexual Wins Fight to Take Bar Examination in Minnesota", New York Times (January 7, 1973), 55.
^The "federal constitution prohibition against ex post facto laws . . . forbids the imposition of punishment for past conduct lawful at the time it was engaged."
Source: Bureau of National Affairs, "Gay married couple frustrated in adoption bid", The Family Law Reporter, page 2103 (December 10, 1974).
^Professor Thomas Kraemer [Oregon State University], "Gay marriage discussion in 1953 vs. 1963 and today" (December 16, 2013).
^See: McConnell Files, "Full Equality, a diary" [volumes 2c and 2d], Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies, University of Minnesota Libraries
^It "is the opinion of this office that you should not issue the license for marriage to the applicants Richard John Baker and James Michael McConnell on the grounds that under the law of the State of Minnesota, as the same presently exists, two male persons may not enter into the contract of marriage."
Source: Letter addressed to Gerald R. Nelson, Clerk of District Court, from George M. Scot, County Attorney, pages 6-7 (May 22, 1970).
Copies: Minnesota Judicial Branch, Hennepin County District Court, Fourth Judicial District, File No. 671379.
Access: McConnell Files, "Full Equality, a diary", (volume 2ab), Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies, University of Minnesota Libraries.
^"The consequences of an interpretation of our marriage statutes which would permit males to enter into the marriage contract could be to result in an undermining and destruction of the entire legal concept of our family structure in all areas of law."
Source: Letter addressed to Gerald R. Nelson, Clerk of District Court, from George M. Scot, County Attorney, page 6 (May 22, 1970).
Copies: Minnesota Judicial Branch, Hennepin County District Court, Fourth Judicial District, File No. 671379.
^Letter from Ralph H. Hopp, University Librarian, University of Minnesota, mailed to Michael McConnell (27 April 1970).
Sources: McConnell Files, "Full Equality, a diary", volumes 5a-e (The McConnell case), Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies, University of Minnesota Libraries.
^"The following recommendation of its Executive Committee is approved: 'That the appointment of Mr. J. M. McConnell to the position of the Head of the Cataloging Division of the St. Paul Campus Library at the rank of Instructor not be approved on the grounds that his personal conduct, as represented in the public and University news media, is not consistent with the best interest of the University.' . . ."
Source: Letter from James F. Hogg, Secretary, Board of Regents, University of Minnesota, delivered to Michael McConnell (July 10, 1970).
^Randy Tigue, "Regent: FREE member case 'matter of public relations', Minnesota Daily (July 16, 1970), 1.
^McConnell wanted "to pursue an activist role in implementing his controversial ideas concerning the social status to be accorded homosexuals and thereby to foist tacit approval of the socially repugnant concept upon his employer."
Source: Michelle Andrea Wolf and Alfred P. Kielwasser, eds., "Gay People, Sex, and the Media", Haworth Press (1991), 237.
^"University of Minnesota President Eric Kaler has called McConnell's treatment reprehensible, regrets that it occurred and says that the university's actions at that time were not consistent with the practices enforced today at the university."
Source: "News", University News Service (June 22, 2012).
Confirmation: "The dictionary defines 'reprehensible' as 'deserving of rebuke or censure'. And the action taken by our Board in 1970 to rescind Michael McConnell's job offer simply because of who he loved – and not because of his qualifications as a librarian – is today worthy of deep criticism . . . of rebuke and censure."
Source: Email from Eric W Kaler – Office of the President <upres@umn.edu> to Logan Chelmo [Shakopee High School, class of 2018] (June 25, 2018).
^Letter from Michael McConnell addressed to university president Eric Kaler (25 July 2012).
Sources: McConnell Files, "America's First Gay Marriage", Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies, University of Minnesota Libraries
^Letter from Robert Burgett, Senior Vice President, University of Minnesota Foundation, addressed to Michael McConnell (February 17, 2020).
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