One year after the Montgomery County Register of Wills issued marriage licenses to same-sex couples in Pennsylvania, those couples and other supporters are coming together to thank him for his leadership.
Pennsylvanians for Equality, along with the newly formed Montgomery County Gay Caucus, in conjunction with many of the 174 same-sex couples who received marriage licenses from D. Bruce Hanes last summer, will stage an anniversary celebration and re-election fundraiser July 30.
Dan Clifford, caucus member, chair of the Springfield Township Zoning Hearing Board and lead organizer of the event, said it’s important to support a leader who took a stand for LGBT equality.
“[Re-election year] 2015 is approaching and our concern is that Bruce may be targeted by someone for his re-election by an opponent who will attack him for supporting marriage equality,” he said. “It is six months away from his re-election and we wanted to get this on the radar of the LGBT community so they could come together to support him now rather than later.”
Clifford said two of the first same-sex couples to receive a marriage license from Hanes helped rally support for the event from the other couples. The two couples and Hanes will be recognized at the event and provide remarks.
The recently developed gay caucus — comprised of Abington Township Commissioner Lori Schreiber, Norristown Council President William Caldwell, Bridgeport Borough Councilman Mark Barbee and Clifford — was created to provide awareness of and support for LGBT candidates and their allies.
“I think it is important to ensure that the advocates and allies of the marriage-equality movement are retained in office and not become the subject of targeted campaigns from opponents on those issues,” he said. “Hanes has done an exemplary job as Register of Wills. He is one of the people that took a stand on the right side of history.”
Clifford said Hanes helped bring the topic of marriage equality to the forefront of the public consciousness.
“He put the issue of marriage equality into the public square,” he said. “Before, it was being discussed between lawyers and in court cases but, because of him, people started talking about marriage equality who hadn’t talked about it before. They were weighing in on how they felt and the public opinion boosted and I think that can partially be attributed to that bump, because [Hanes] made it an everyday discussion topic.”
Hanes, a resident of Elkins Park, previously served as a committeeperson and later co-chair of Cheltenham Township. He was elected the county’s Register of Wills and Clerk of Orphan’s Court in 2007, the first-ever Democrat to hold that office. He was re-elected in 2011.
On July 23, 2013, Hanes announced that, based upon the U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning the federal ban on same-sex marriage from a few weeks prior, his office had determined it would grant a local lesbian couple’s request for a marriage license.
Marriage licenses began being issued the following day. On July 30, the state sued Hanes, and on Sept. 12 a judge ordered him to stop issuing licenses.
Marriage equality became legal in Pennsylvania on May 20, and the validity of the licenses Hanes issued last summer is still in question. When the decision came down in the spring, Hanes was the only county clerk in the state who could not issue licenses to same-sex couples, as it took several days for a judge to lift the previous order barring him from doing so.
Clifford said the upcoming event will help generate support for a public official who is willing and ready to continue his support of the LGBT community.
“We are excited to celebrate what we are calling the landmark decision that Bruce made,” he said. “We want to financially support him for next year and provide support back to someone who was willing to put himself in that position.”
The celebration will be held from 6-7:30 p.m. July 30 at P.J. Whelihan’s, 799 Dekalb Pike in Blue Bell.
Tickets are $45 and can be purchased at the door. For more information on the event, email Clifford at [email protected] or call 610-272-5555.