Nice Time! Minnesota Gays Get Hitched Up All Legal-Like

Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Sharia) can actually sing and play a guitar pretty well, and here he serves up a helping of progressive hero Woody Guthrie in celebration of Minnesota's brand-new marriage equality law, which went into effect at midnight. At Minneapolis City Hall, Mayor R.T. Rybak performed the first of 42 marriages of same-sex couples this morning:

At the stroke of midnight, he turned to Cathy ten Broeke and Margaret Miles, who stood smiling through their tears, holding hands and wearing the same dresses they wore for their commitment ceremony 12 years ago.

“Margaret and Cathy, by the power now finally vested in me, by the laws of the people of Minnesota, we hereby declare Margaret and Cathy legally married. You may now kiss the bride.”

In a repeat of divine nonintervention that was seen following the resumption of same-sex marriages in California, God Almighty elected not to smite the state with any natural disasters.

The marriages were witnessed by a large crowd, including the Minnesota legislators who had authored the marriage equality bills, and staffers from Senator Al Franken's office, who distributed bouquets of roses to all the couples. (In an email that for once wasn't asking for money, Franken noted that he gives a similar bouquet to his wife Franni every year on their anniversary, the big sentimental lug with his liberal family values and stuff.)

Gov. Mark Dayton received a standing ovation but did the whole humble aw-shucks thing, which is just what you do:

“All I did at the end was sign my name on a piece of paper, which is really not that hard once you get the hang of it,” he said. “The real credit for this transformative event in Minnesota goes to all of you and all the LGBT women and men throughout Minnesota who had the courage to stand up and say, ‘We want the same rights as every other American. It’s our constitutional right, it’s our moral right.”

We hope that this moment of Nice Time has you as pleasantly choked up as we are, and that it will be of some sustenance to you when you read about the miscellaneous dumbfuckery that will inevitably be coming down the internet as the day progresses. Mazel tov and hot dish, Minnesota!

[ StarTribune.com / YouTube via TPM ]