Mainstreet Radio's Tim Post profiles Cody Rogahn and Jonathan Yarbrough, a couple from west-central Minnesota that became one of the first same-sex couples to take advantage of the new Massachusetts law allowing gay couples to wed.
After Massachusetts became the first state to allow gay couples to wed, same-sex partners from across the country flocked to the state to get married. Rogahn and Yarbrough have returned to Glenwood, but they're not sure what to make of all the attention their wedding received.
This was part three in a series titled “What is Marriage?”
Transcripts
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TIM POST: About 3,000 people live in Glenwood in Pope County. The town spills down a long bluff along the shore of Lake Minnewaska. This is where Cody Rogahn and Jonathan Yarbrough have lived for five years. This winter, the couple decided to take a spring trip to Massachusetts. They planned it so they'd be there May 17th, the first day the state allowed same sex couples to marry.
They anticipated a quiet wedding, just them and a minister. But since they were the first gay couple to be married in Provincetown, nine members of the media attended their oceanside service. But did they bother you?
CODY ROGAHN: No, actually. For me, it didn't. I just tuned them out.
JONATHAN YARBROUGH: Gave me something else to look at.
[LAUGHS]
TIM POST: The attention doesn't seem to bother the couple. Sitting at a downtown Glenwood restaurant, Yarborough says they didn't realize the historical nature of what they were doing.
JONATHAN YARBROUGH: Well, it hadn't really registered until people started asking us how we felt about it being historic and that sort of thing. And then we started thinking about it, but that wasn't our impetus for going there.
TIM POST: Rogahn says the historical aspect of their wedding did add something to the day, but he agrees that's not why they did it. They simply wanted to get married, something they can't do in Minnesota.
CODY ROGAHN: And even though it's not Minnesota, it is a state of the United States, Massachusetts. And I think that gives some credence and legitimacy to the relationship.
TIM POST: Same sex weddings in Massachusetts have fed the national debate over gay marriage. Rogahn says he and Yarbrough just want to live their lives and don't think what they did is anyone else's concern.
CODY ROGAHN: It is our personal lives and we've chosen to be married, and really no one else should really care. It's between the two of us and our commitment to each other.
TIM POST: The fear among some people is that gay couples like Yarbrough and Rogahn will want their Massachusetts marriages recognized here in Minnesota. The issue is even holding up the prospect of a special session at the State Capitol. Legislative leaders say the session is needed to address issues of state debt and public safety.
Some Republicans insist debate over a constitutional amendment on gay marriage should be included in the session, but some Democrats say that debate has no place in the special session. Republican State Senator Michele Bachmann of Stillwater says the issue isn't about lawmakers banning gay marriage, since gay couples are free to marry in Massachusetts. Bachmann wants the legislature to let voters decide whether marriage in Minnesota should be defined as only between a man and a woman.
MICHELE BACHMANN: And if we really do believe in democracy and that we should be ruled by the consent of the people, then we should allow the people to be able to define and order our essential foundational institutions in our society. The first and primary being that of what is a family.
TIM POST: Back in Glenwood, Cody Rogahn and Jonathan Yarbrough think it's inevitable that someday gay marriage will be allowed in Minnesota. But Jonathan Yarbrough says, don't look for them to lead up the effort, even though it's something they believe in.
JONATHAN YARBROUGH: We do expect it to become legal in Minnesota sometime, whether it's next year or five years from now. We do expect that some couples will get married in Massachusetts and challenge it in Minnesota. We're just not racing to be the first ones.
TIM POST: Yarborough and Rogahn say they don't have the time or the resources to fight in court to have their marriage recognized in Minnesota. But they say if several other same-sex couples want to band together and fight for the right to marry, they'll do what they can to help. Tim Post, Minnesota Public Radio, Glenwood.