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Ferndale mayor, minister officiate mass symbolic gay wedding

Saturday, June 5, 2004

By ADRIENNE SCHWISOW
ASSOCIATED PRESS

Nearly a dozen gay and lesbian couples pledged their love and commitment under blue skies Saturday at a symbolic marriage ceremony officiated by Ferndale's mayor.

Although the ceremony carried no legal weight, the 11 couples who exchanged vows and rings left feeling married.

``I can't stop quivering,'' said Melvin Rodgers Berta, 41, clutching the ringed hand of his partner of three years, Leroy Berta, 46.

``It's just like the day we met,'' Leroy Berta added.

A handful of protesters silently lined the sidewalk in front of City Hall, where the couples and Mayor Robert Porter gathered under a blue and pink outdoor banner that proclaimed: ``To love, honor and be recognized.''

Porter and the Rev. Mark Bidwell, pastor of the majority gay Metropolitan Community Church and co-officiator of the ceremony, called it an important symbol and hoped it would be a catalyst for the legalization of same-sex marriage in Michigan.

``My belief is in the rights of people,'' Porter said after the ceremony. ``I believe that is my responsibility as a servant of government.''

Janet McMahan, 42, of Berkley said she grew up in Ferndale but would never move back because of Porter's open support for gay marriage. Wearing a T-shirt with the handwriting ``Stand strong for moral values, Boycott Ferndale,'' she leaned against a signpost near City Hall and watched the proceedings.

``I'm not against gays,'' she said. ``I'm against the way they flaunt their lifestyle. I just wish they'd be more discreet.''

The couples walked away from Saturday's ceremony with commitment papers affirming their partnership, but no marriage licenses. Only the county has the power to issue licenses, and Oakland County has previously rebuffed same-sex couples who sought them.

The papers are the second such set for the Bertas, who married in a similar ceremony a year ago in Las Vegas.

``For me, I wanted to have commitment papers from Michigan, my state,'' Melvin Berta said. ``It's more legal to me that way.''

The ceremony came six months after Dawna Lovely, 32, and Dawn Still, 27, met at the store where they work and became partners. In similar dark blue dresses and with rainbow-colored ribbons woven into their hair, they wiped away tears and held hands as friends snapped photographs after the proceeding.

``We already were committed, and this just makes it official,'' Lovely said.

The ceremonies were part of the weekend's Motor City Pride festival in Ferndale. In just two short decades, the city of 22,000 has gone from being a struggling, half-forgotten working-class town to a vibrant, hip city and a center for the area's gay community.

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