SAN FRANCISCO -- California held its first gay marriage since 2008 as state Atty. Gen. Kamala D. Harris performed the wedding ceremony for Kris Perry and Sandy Stier, plaintiffs in the landmark court case that challenged Proposition 8.
They were married in San Francisco about an hour after the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals opened the way for same-sex weddings to resume in California. Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa was slated to marry Paul Katami and Jeff Zarrillo, the other plaintiffs in the case, at L.A. City Hall at 6:15 p.m.
"By virtue of the power and authority vested in me by the state of California, I now declare you spouses for life," Harris told Perry and Stier on a second-floor balcony at San Francisco City Hall. Someone shouted, "Mazel tov!"
Perry was wearing a gray pantsuit and Stier a gray dress. Eliot Perry, one of the couple's four sons,