Spring Break
Same-sex couples tie the knot in Iowa
Amy Lorentzen - Associated Press
Issue date: 4/28/09 Section: News
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Melisa Keeton and Shelley Wolfe were declared "legally married" by pastor Peg Esperanaza during a ceremony in front of the Polk County administrative offices in Des Moines. It didn't take long before they were referring to one another as "wife."
"It's not very romantic is it?" Melisa Keeton joked, referring to the location of the ceremony and the media attention. The couple was allowed to wed after getting a judge to waive the state's three-day waiting period before marriages are deemed valid.
The couple, who will share the last name Keeton, believed they were the first same-sex couple married in Polk County, and possibly the state, since the April 3 Iowa Supreme Court ruling that legalized gay marriage. The ruling made Iowa the third state to allow same-sex marriage, joining Massachusetts and Connecticut.
"I didn't think it would be us," said Shelley Keeton, whose twin brother served as one of the couple's witnesses.
First in line at the Polk County office were Grant Lan, 35, and Andrew Mahoney-Lan, 32. The Windsor Heights couple also planned to seek a waiver that would let them marry Monday.
"It's huge to be here first," Mahoney-Lan said.
Officials said the Polk County recorder's office had received 57 marriage applications from same-sex couples by 11:30 a.m.
Esperanaza, of the Church of the Holy Spirit in Des Moines, also married at least two other couples, all at no charge.
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