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1966 First public same-sex marriage (by the Metropolitan Community Churches’s Rev. Troy Perry, 1968)
1media/First Performed Gay Marriage_thumb.jpeg2022-07-16T00:40:50+00:00Gina Leonf0ac362b4453e23ee8a94b1a49fbeeafde2a0a4912LA's gay history is everywhere, from the endangered former nightclub The Factory to Griffith Park. But in honor of today's landmark Supreme Court decision on marriage equality, why not go and take a look at a particularly special site—this modest Huntington Park house, described by TIME magazine as the house where the first public gay marriage ceremony took place back in 1968. At the time, the house was the location of the Metropolitan Community Church of Los Angeles; the religious organization, founded in October of that year by Reverend Troy D. Perry, was open to LGBT members, as explained on MCC's website. The first MCC service had 12 attendees. In December 1968, the reverend performed the ceremony for two men (it was, of course, not legally binding then). More marriages followed. In March 1969, the reverend oversaw the marriage of two women; their wedding would go on, says an MCC historian, to be "the basis for the world's first lawsuit seeking recognition of same-gender marriage." (Some sources cite this union as the first same-sex marriage, but agree that whichever couple was first, it was Rev. Perry who officiated.)plain2022-10-06T21:00:22+00:001966Gina Leonf0ac362b4453e23ee8a94b1a49fbeeafde2a0a49