The 20th Anniversary of California’s First Same-Sex Marriages

It’s Monday. The 20th anniversary of California’s first same-sex marriages. Plus, the state’s fast-food workers have a new union.

History was made 20 years ago today at San Francisco City Hall.

Gavin Newsom, who had taken office as mayor of San Francisco the month before, directed the city clerk to begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, the first in California. He said he believed that denying gay and lesbian couples the right to marry was a form of discrimination.

More than 4,000 gay couples were married at San Francisco City Hall over the next month, in what supporters called the “Winter of Love.”

The weddings conducted in that monthlong period — Feb. 12 to March 11, 2004 — were voided in August of that year by the California Supreme Court. But they set off a chain of events that eventually led to same-sex marriage becoming legal in California in 2013.

“I will always cherish that sort of collective elation we felt that day, even though everybody there probably knew it may not last,” said Nicholas Parham, who married his longtime partner, James Martin, at City Hall on Feb. 13, 2004. “We thought: Let’s just have fun. Let’s show the world what we want.”