Downtown Durham's Old Courthouse was a place of unity Monday—not only for couples joining one another in marriage, but also for bystanders cheering at the weddings of strangers and clergy officiating ceremonies for people they had never met.
And in a strange but touching twist of fate, I found myself stepping out of my role as a reporter to join in the celebration.
I spent the day at the Durham County register of deeds, interviewing couples who were taking advantage of North Carolina's first day offering same-sex marriage licenses. I watched as people who had been together for decades filled out their applications—some with family and friends in tow, some sharing the special moment as a couple; some with plans for grand weddings in the coming weeks, some with plans to get married in a magistrate's office down the hall.
As I walked out of the building at the end of the afternoon, I saw one last couple leaving with marriage license in hand—Cathy Chandler and Nancy Blood, Durham residents who have been together for 38 years.
I told them I was a reporter and asked if I could interview them. They told me they needed a legal witness for their wedding on the courthouse steps and asked if I could step in.
And despite everything I know about staying on the sidelines—about remembering my place as a reporter, about being the byline and keeping out of the story—I said yes.
I joined them outside, along with a Presbyterian minister who had spent the day officiating weddings for those who had just received their marriage licenses. I listened to Chandler and Blood talk about their partnership, and I heard the minister speak about the strength of their love and the joyousness of the day. When she asked me if I would give my support to my "new friends" as they entered marriage, I said that I would. And after Chandler and Blood embraced and the marriage was declared official, I signed my name below theirs on the legal certificate.
The pair hadn't always hoped for a wedding, they said. As feminists, they were wary about the connotations of marriage as an institution, Chandler noted—so although they were pleased by the statement made when a federal judge struck down North Carolina's gay marriage ban Friday, they didn't think a wedding was in their future.
"Over the weekend, we hadn’t really considered it," Blood said. "But we woke up this morning, thinking—this is a really historic day. Why not? It was just about seizing the day.”
Historic as the day was, there was also something beautifully ordinary about it—dozens of regular people sharing their everyday love stories, making their personal promises to each other legal. It was an unexpected way to end my day of reporting, but it was worth coming off the sidelines for.
Emma Baccellieri is the news editor of The Chronicle. She wrote "Durham celebrates first same-sex marriages," which appears in The Chronicle's Oct. 15 edition.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.