Tying a knot in history

 Eight couples took out same-sex marriage licenses Dec. 29 in South Portland, the first day they were available in the city.

Robin Elliott, left, and Laura Minervino, South Portland
residents for 15 years and a couple for 23, fill out the first
 same-sex marriage license issued in the city.

SOUTH PORTLAND South Portland City Councilor Patti Smith had vowed to be “first in line” when same-sex marriage licenses became available, but when the big day finally came, Robin Elliott and Laura Minervino beat her to a place in history.

On Saturday, Elliott and Minervino, a couple for 23 years and South Portland residents for 15, became the first same-sex couple to complete a marriage license in the city, following the successful November vote legalizing gay marriage in Maine. By the end of the day – clerks volunteered to work 8 a.m. to noon on a day City Hall is normally closed – nine marriage licenses were issued, and three wedding ceremonies were performed by City Clerk Susan Mooney, who brought in celebratory cakes for each couple. The count for the day included seven female couples, five of whom had competed their paperwork by 8:30 a.m., and one male couple, as well as one traditional male/female pairing.

The first same-sex couple actually married in South Portland – Cynthia Sortwell and Jessie Cash – declined to be photographed and asked that no reporters be in council chambers during the ceremony. However,

“We’re just excited,” said Elliott. “We’ve been waiting a long time for this. It’s just a great feeling. Not only is it finally, actually, real, it means that we won’t get lost in history.

“When people research family histories, gay partners have always just been non-existent,” said Elliott. “This means now I am legally an aunt to my nieces. It means so much and I’m so proud of the state of Maine that this has happened.”

Elliott and Minervino plan to hold their wedding ceremony Jan. 6 at Victoria Mansion in Portland, in front of a small group of family and friends.

“This just really means the world to us,” said Minervino, noting that she and Elliot, both Maine natives, have not experienced any prejudice on South Portland directed at their lifestyle.

“Our neighborhood is wonderful,” said Elliott. “The whole community is just really great. We certainly have known discrimination in our lifetimes, but not here. South Portland has just been a real home for us.”

After completing their paperwork, Elliot left no doubt that she and Minervino, though newly legal, are, for all intents and purposes, and old married couple.

After turning over the $40 license fee, Elliott handed the receipt to Minervino, saying with a laugh, “Here, you owe me 20 bucks.”

Minervino, who could not contain a laugh of her own, said in retort for the benefit of the other couples in line, “She’s known me long enough to know she’s never going to see that $20.”

Portland began issuing marriage license for same-sex couples at midnight Saturday, churning out 15 and performing a half-dozen ceremonies before closing shop at 3 a.m. Michael Snell and Steven Bridges were the first same-sex couple married in Maine, emerging from Portland City Hall to cheers from a crowd of nearly 300 and, by most accounts, jeers from a single protestor.

On Nov. 6, Maine joined Maryland and Washington as the first states to approve same-sex marriage at the polls. In Washington, D.C., and the other six states where it is legal, the initiative was approved by state legislatures.

That was the route taken in Maine in 2009, but the a people’s veto petition was filed, and the law overturned, later that year without ever taking effect. This go-round, Maine voters approved the measure by a vote  of 53 percent to 47 percent.