“When you’re in a community that has been denied their rights and privileges for such a long time, then you will understand our impatience,” E. Denise Simmons, an openly gay councillor and one of the co-sponsors of the order, told the council at their Nov. 24 meeting. “Whether the state wants to give us licenses or not, I think Cambridge should do it anyway.”

But after lawyers advised them that licenses issued before the end of the 180-day period might be subject to legal challenges that would further delay the process, the councillors voted instead to begin granting licenses “as soon as legally possible.”

“To push forward now would simply drag the process out in a legal quagmire that would probably take more than 180 days,” said Councillor Brian P. Murphy ’86-’87, the other co-sponsor of the original order. “This is an exciting time and I want to move forward as quickly as we can.”

‘GOING TO THE CHAPEL’

Six months later, Cambridge began issuing licenses as soon as legally possible, allowing couples to file forms declaring their intention to marry at midnight on May 17.

As hundreds of couples streamed into City Hall the night before, Superintendent of Schools Thomas Fowler-Finn and Chief Public Health Officer Harold Cox, decked out in tuxedoes, handed out numbers to each couple indicating their place in line to file the forms.

“Welcome to Cambridge for this historic long-awaited event,” read the instructions given to each couple as they entered the building, which was decorated with wreaths and ribbons for the occasion.

As members of the media from across the country—and some from as far away as Great Britain and The Netherlands—gathered nearby in a roped-off section, some of the couples turned the lens back on them, recording all aspects of the night on their hand-held video cameras for posterity.

Sullivan Chamber was packed with the couples and their supporters who gathered an hour before midnight to listen to speeches and musical performances as a digital clock counted down the minutes until gay marriage became legal.

“I just want to be here as part of history,” said State Sen. Jarrett T. Barrios ’90, an openly gay politician and vocal advocate of same-sex marriage who was on hand to watch the festivities.

In her invocation, Rev. Irene Monroe likened the occasion to the legalization of interracial marriage or the Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, which occurred 50 years to the day before gay marriage became legal.

She added that the traditional wedding pronouncement of a couple as “man and wife” could now change to “husband and husband,” “wife and wife” or “spouse and spouse.”

“But my favorite is this: ‘I now pronounce you married,’” Monroe said, with the ovation growing louder as she continued, “under the laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.”

The Cambridge Community Chorus drew smiles and got some in the chamber to sing along to their rendition of the Beatles’ “Can’t Buy Me Love.”

Mary Bonauto of the Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders, the lead attorney on behalf of the gay couples in the SJC case, received thunderous applause as the crowd chanted her name.