State senator and partner are first same-sex couple to marry in Delaware
WILMINGTON, Del. A state senator and her partner have become the first same-sex couple to be legally wed in Delaware.
Sen. Karen Peterson and her longtime partner, Vikki Bandy, both 63, exchanged vows Monday morning, converting their civil union to marriage in a brief ceremony attended by about 35 friends and supporters.
Following the ceremony, other same-sex couples lined up to get their marriage licenses on the day Delaware's new gay marriage law took effect.
Delaware in May became the 11th state in the nation to allow same-sex marriage when Democratic Gov. Jack Markell signed a gay marriage bill into law just minutes after its passage in the legislature.
The same-sex marriage bill was introduced in the Democrat-controlled legislature barely a year after the state began recognizing same-sex civil unions.