Nearly 100 Gay Couples Recite Vows of Commitment in S.F.

Three weeks after Californians rejected same-sex marriages with a ballot proposition, nearly 100 gay couples professed their commitment to each other here at dusk Thursday in a City Hall ceremony presided over by Mayor Willie Brown.

“I do willingly take you to be my lifetime partner, to love and to cherish forever,” Brown said, leading the couples. “I pledge . . . to be committed to a relationship of loyalty, love and mutual caring.”

This was the fourth year that such a ceremony was held in San Francisco, where same-sex partners who work for the city are offered health benefits.

In the primary election March 7, a majority of California voters defined marriage as a solely male-female union by approving Proposition 22, also called the Knight Initiative after its sponsor, state Sen. William “Pete” Knight (R-Palmdale).

Some of the couples at the ceremony said the proposition’s passage had a lot to do with their choice to participate.

“We’re here because we want to show the public that we do have relationships and we do have commitments,” said 38-year-old Grant Minix, who said he has been involved with the same man for six years. “Proposition 22 makes it more important for us to do something like this. It shows people that gays are not just running around being promiscuous. We want to have families and children like other people.”