A Triumphant Victory, 11 Years After San Francisco City Hall’s ‘Winter of Love’
California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, who previously served as San Francisco mayor, speaks at a news conference outside of City Hall in San Francisco, Friday, June 26, 2015, Jeff Chiu / AP Photo
California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom reflects on how the nation has “traveled full circle” since his defiant actions to sanction same-sex marriages as mayor in 2004.
SAN FRANCISCO — More than two hours following the start of Sunday’s Pride parade along Market Street, an open-top vintage car with a “Just Married” banner carried two men dressed in white tuxedos. One of the men shouted out to the crowd with a bullhorn: “San Francisco, we won!”
The crowd roared back with triumphant cheers.
This weekend was one of overwhelming jubilation in the City by the Bay, packed with what was estimated to be more than 1 million revelers for the 45th Pride Celebration and Parade who had extra reason to celebrate with Friday’s historic Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage across the United States.
The legal victory for marriage equality is certainly one of the most substantial achievements in the fight for LGBT rights. But there are plenty of more battles to be waged in state and local governments across the nation, including employment discrimination.
On Friday, California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, who as the new mayor of San Francisco defied state and federal law in 2004 and allowed same-sex couples to marry in his city, reflected on marriage equality legal victory and how the nation “traveled full circle in the eleven years since San Francisco's Winter of Love,” he said in a statement released. But he also noted “that the fight for equality is not over. Far from it. As we look to the future, I urge those with whom I have walked this march to continue forward with vigilance and resolve.”
But the past 11 years, have been an “unbelievable journey,” Newsom said, according to the Los Angeles Times. "In 2004, if you had told me [marriage equality across the entire U.S.] would happen in my lifetime, I honestly would have given it a small percentage chance—I mean that," he said.
There were plenty of low points along the way, especially when California voters approved Proposition 8 in 2008, banning same-sex marriage.
But the cause wasn’t totally extinguished, and step by step, state by state, the LGBT community saw both legal victories and defeats on the road to Friday’s definitive marriage equality ruling.
But it had to start somewhere. And that somewhere was San Francisco City Hall.
On Friday, San Francisco’s current mayor, Ed Lee, credited Newsom’s actions in the winter of 2004, when 4,000 same-sex couples were married in the city before California’s attorney general filed suit to stop municipally-sanctioned marriages.
More than a decade ago, then-Mayor Gavin Newsom took a courageous stand against marriage discrimination in San Francisco, marrying Phyllis Lyon and her late partner Del Martin who for decades inspired so many with their love and commitment to marriage equality. We see that arc of history bend from that historic day to this one. Our City will always be grateful for the incredible efforts of all those who worked for years on the path toward marriage equality with thousands of loving same sex couples marrying under our City Hall dome and across our entire State, and now in every State in our Union.
And count on plenty of more marriages at San Francisco City Hall.
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