A step forward

When Chicoan Adelio Havens heard of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) on the morning of June 26, she immediately proposed—multiple times—to her longtime partner, Jessica Provencio.

“I think I asked her to marry me about 15 times,” Havens said with a nervous laugh just prior to Stonewall Alliance’s rally that day in Chico City Plaza to honor the landmark decision.

Visibly excited, Provencio related how that morning, the couple sat at their computer repeatedly refreshing the page of a news site, anxiously awaiting the ruling.

“I was burying my head in the pillows; we were really nervous,” Havens said.

As the couple would soon find out, the Supreme Court deemed that a key portion of DOMA—the law barring the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages legalized by state governments—was unconstitutional in a 5-4 vote. The court also supported a lower court’s ruling on California’s ban of same-sex marriage via Proposition 8, passed in 2008, maintaining that the proposition’s sponsors lacked legal authority to defend the law in federal court after Gov. Jerry Brown’s administration refused to appeal its loss.

News of the ruling made for a celebratory gathering in the plaza, attended by dozens of boisterous and colorfully dressed members of the local LGBT community and their supporters. Festivities included four speakers and “a lot of shouting and yelling and joyful noise,” said Thomas Kelem, director of Chico’s Stonewall Alliance. Like Havens and Provencio, Kelem was deeply moved by the morning’s news.

“I found myself being incredibly emotional,” he said. “I was shocked I was reacting so strongly. It felt like the end of a huge struggle. To get this done and over with, let people get married already, and get the federal government in line was great.”

Ange Bledsoe, program coordinator at Stonewall and an introductory speaker at the rally, added that the ruling was a “milestone.”

“I don’t know if it’s really hit me yet,” Bledsoe said. “I’m ecstatic and so thankful. … Now we feel a little more equal and not so discriminated against.”

And though several couples and individuals at the rally expressed personal satisfaction over being awarded the right to marry whom they choose—and for that marriage to be recognized, for legal purposes, by the federal government—they all emphasized the ruling’s importance as a civil-rights landmark.

“One of the biggest things that a marriage license gives you is the feeling that you’re an actual citizen,” Havens said. “That you can’t have the same rights as everyone else makes you feel like a second-class citizen.”

Provencio took that sentiment a step further.

“We pay the same taxes as everyone else … and we may even be more active in the community than many people are,” she said.

Though the couple agreed there is much work to be done on the gay-rights front—pointing to the 37 states in which gay marriage is still illegal—both Havens and Provencio were clearly enthralled at the prospect of married life together, which they plan to begin next fall.

Not all Californians shared the rally-goers’ enthusiasm for the Supreme Court ruling.

Proponents of Proposition 8 filed an emergency petition with the Supreme Court on June 29 in an effort to “stop the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal’s premature move requiring same-sex ‘marriage’ licenses in California, weeks before the Supreme Court’s decision goes into effect,” a press release read. The petition was rejected by Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy on June 30.

State Sen. Jim Nielsen (R-Gerber) called the Proposition 8 ruling “disappointing” in a press release.

“The political elite, who did not agree with the election results, refused to defend the people’s vote,” he said. “It calls into question the very nature of the people’s right to bypass the political system and directly assert their will using the democratic process.”

Myles Pustejovsky, manager at the Butte County Clerk-Recorder’s office, said the county began issuing same-sex marriage licenses following the ruling.

One man who intends to pursue such a license is Chicoan Kelly Houston, 65, who has been with his partner, Victor Robin, for 38 years. Though they had a four-month window in which to marry in 2008 prior to Proposition 8 being passed, a family illness demanded the couple’s full attention at the time. He said they intend to seize their opportunity this time around, having formalized their engagement the Saturday after the Supreme Court ruling. They plan on getting married either this October or the next, to mark their 39th or 40th anniversary together.

Houston, a gay Chicoan of African-American descent who grew up in Washington, D.C., during the 1960s, said he believes the June 26 decision has similarities to decisive moments in the civil-rights movement.

“Growing up in D.C., even though there were very many black people in the city, we didn’t have any voting rights until 1968,” he said during a recent phone interview, adding that the federal legalization of gay marriage is “very much the same thing and a giant step forward.

“I’ve lived this life without accepting any restrictions,” Houston continued. “It was very difficult for me growing up, because [being gay] wasn’t accepted. I knew it wasn’t accepted, and I knew that eventually it would change. But I never expected it to happen in my lifetime.”