Twenty years ago, at midnight on May 17, Cambridge City Hall opened its doors to nearly a hundred same-sex couples eager to be among the first in the country to receive their marriage license.
Among those in line were Eve Alpern and Brenda Morris, now residents of Belmont. For 10 hours, they waited to enter City Hall for a process Alpern thought would be no different than applying for a driver’s license.
“We went inside, and there were festivities and speeches,” she recalled. “I do remember, distinctly, having my hand on the door to leave and thinking that was really lovely. I was sort of sad we had to go home. But we threw open the doors and … there were people on either side … throngs of people.”
Exiting City Hall at around 2 a.m., Alpern and Morris were greeted by allies honking and blowing horns, throwing rice, dancing in the street, and shouting words of congratulations. They passed by a SWAT team in full riot gear.
At that moment, Alpern realized the weight of it all. Together with her wife, they had just made history.
“It moved from being something niche and internal in a small community event to realizing it had historical significance and that it mattered to everyone,” she said.
In June of that year, the couple held an interfaith service at a historic estate, which was attended by 75 of their closest friends and family. The marriage ceremony was officiated by a lesbian rabbi at the edge of a reflecting pool.
Now residents of Belmont, the two women met in 2000 at an LGBTQ theater where they both worked. At the time, Alpern never envisioned herself as a married woman, though she did value commitment and wanted to live her life with someone she loved. The two were in the middle of planning a commitment ceremony when, in November 2003, news broke that the Supreme Judicial Court ruled the state’s ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional. Ninety days later, same-sex marriage was officially recognized by the state.
“I really had a distinction in my mind about marriage being about rights and laws and taxes and healthcare and being able to be next of kin in the hospital without having to go through a lot of proxy paperwork,” Alpern said. “We were kind of drawn to it in a real practical sense of wanting to be protected and treated equally. It was really about accessing civil rights.”
So when word got out that couples were rushing to Cambridge City Hall, Alpern and Morris made their way there, too.
Two decades later, Alpern and Morris still recognize the significance of that day in history.
“It’s easy to forget,” Alpern said. “I’ve gotten so used to my rights and feeling like a human that I kind of can’t believe I had forgotten what it was like before that.”
In advance of the 20th anniversary, the couple has watched documentaries, read old news clippings, and reflected on the direction in which the country is headed.
“I’m just really grateful for the work of activists that led to that and who are fighting the fight now,” Alpern said. “For me, it’s not about marriage, per se; it’s about everybody having equal access to the rights in our country and being treated like a dignified human, regardless of whether they’re in a relationship or not.”
