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Richard John Baker and James Michael McConnell are the first same sex couple in modern recorded history known to obtain a marriage license, have their marriage solemnized, which occured on September 3, 1971 and be legally recognized by any form of government. The couple met in 1966. On March 10, 1967 – Baker's 25th birthday – McConnell agreed to be "his lover" but only if it meant "a commitment . . . for the long haul," living openly as a married couple. That commitment continued long after "52 Years Since Same-sex Marriage Milestone". Early years James Michael McConnell was born in Norman, Oklahoma on May 19, 1942. He learned self-pride from his Baptist parents, who raised him with love. After graduating from Norman High School, he attended the University of Oklahoma (OU), ending with a Master of Library Science degree in June 1968. Baker was born in Chicago on March 10, 1942. While in kindergarten, even after mother died, then father, his teacher described him as "very bright" and "anxious to learn". Along with three siblings, he was delivered by the "State of Illinois, Department of Public Welfare, Child Welfare Services" to Maryville Academy in Des Plaines, Illinois, on "9_4_48" and accepted as "boarders" to receive "service" and Catholic "schooling". He remained in its "care and custody" for almost 11 years, completing grades 2-12. While on active duty (four years) in the U.S. Air Force, Baker was accepted in the Airmen Education Commissioning Program and stationed at OU, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Engineering. He returned to Norman as a civilian, met McConnell, and invited him to hang out. With reluctance, his friend agreed to enter into a serious relationship. Baker also later received a Master's degree in May 1968. FREE activism In 1969, weeks before the Stonewall riots in New York City, Koreen Phelps recruited local friends to join her outreach program sponsored by Minnesota Free University. Robert Halfhill, a graduate student who attended her lecture, wanted more than "just a social organization". He left, determined to organize a team of gay activists on the Minneapolis campus of the University of Minnesota. Jack Baker, a law student, was elected to serve as president. Moving aggressively and openly, FREE eventually transformed Minneapolis into a "mecca for gays", with members soon endorsing McConnell's dream of same-sex marriage. When a faculty committee qualified the members to receive all privileges enjoyed by student groups, it became "the first student gay organization to gain recognition in the upper mid-west." Its "leaders [believed] it to be the first such organization on a Big Ten campus", and the second such organization in the United States, following the Student Homophile League recognized by Columbia University in 1967. One member asked five major companies with local offices to explain their attitudes toward gay men and women. Three responded quickly, insisting that they did not discriminate against gay people in their hiring policies. Honeywell objected to hiring "a known homosexual." Later in the decade, when faced with a denial of access to students, Honeywell reversed its hiring policy. In 1971, Baker campaigned to become president of the Minnesota Student Association at the University of Minnesota. Once elected, he hired Gail Karwoski as his communications director and, one year later, won re-election. The regents consented to his campaign promise and invited one student to sit with each committee as a non-voting member. That practice proved to be popular and became policy. The birth of PRIDE In 1971, Members of FREE from Gay House invited friends to meet at picnics in Loring Park, near Downtown Minneapolis. Such events, which encouraged self-pride, began in mid-June as a prelude to local celebrations of Independence Day. Thom Higgins, Prime Archon of the Church of the Chosen People, crafted Gay Pride for the banner that would lead the crowd as it encouraged allies, supporters and bystanders to punish the Catholic archbishop of Saint Paul and Minneapolis for his public condemnation of both the gay life-style and self-pride as sinful. At the time, Jack was the chair of the Target City Coalition, parent corporation for The Gay Pride Committee, which sponsored the Festival of Pride each June. Such celebrations spread and became the PRIDE tradition that thrives today in cities throughout the United States. In 1973, FREE continued working with University of Minnesota faculty to protect gay students from discrimination. Central Administration approved the final draft of a new policy in 1972 and the Campus Committee on Placement Services began accepting complaints of unequal treatment by employers recruiting on campus. A member of FREE received class credit for documenting his youth and why he supported America's first gay marriage, which was featured on WCCO-TV. Same-sex marriage activism When a modern movement for "marriage equality" emerged from the University of Minnesota, it attracted extensive media attention, including appearances on the Phil Donahue Show; Kennedy & Co. (WLS-TV, Chicago IL); and David Susskind Show (New York, NY). After a professor of history, Allan Spear, mocked them as the "lunatic fringe", admiration among peers spread locally Lawsuit to obtain a marriage license McConnell and Baker applied for a marriage license. After the Clerk of District Court refused their request, they filed a "motion for the issuance of a writ of mandamus to require . . . the Clerk . . . to issue a marriage license . . ." Denial in the lower court was affirmed by the Minnesota Supreme Court. However, before the final opinion was published, McConnell re-applied – in a different county – and received a marriage license. Same-sex marriage as a civil right Speaking to members of the Ramsey County Bar Association, Baker argued that same-sex unions are "not only authorized by the U.S. Constitution" but are mandatory. Later, Baker spoke to a forum of more than 2,000 at the University of Winnipeg, which Richard North, activist, credited as the start of a "fight [by same-sex couples in Canada] to be married" legally. In 2012, Benjamin Todd Jealous, president of the NAACP, called same-sex marriage the "civil rights issue of our times" and Baker insisted that "the conclusion was intuitively obvious to a first-year law student." Courts debate their marriage McConnell's marriage to Baker depended on how Minnesota interpreted its laws. Early results were not favorable. An appeal sponsored by the Minnesota Civil Liberties Union was accepted by the U.S. Supreme Court, which dismissed it with a one-sentence order on October 10, 1972: "The appeal is dismissed for want of a substantial federal question." Their joint tax return for 1973 was rejected by the Internal Revenue Service. Likewise, the Veterans Administration rejected McConnell's request for spousal benefits. Undaunted, McConnell listed Baker a.... Discover the Lyn Baker popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Lyn Baker books.