Kitty Lambert, the prominent Buffalo LGBT activist who got attention for attaining a marriage license with a perfect male stranger last year after New York refused to give one to her and her female partner, finally said “I Do” with her bride, Cheryle Rudd, July 24 at midnight.
Advocate.com spoke to the happy newlyweds about their activism, their road to the wedding night, and how it feels to finally be legally married.
For Lambert and Rudd, their first attempt to obtain a marriage license in New York on February 10, 2010, garnered a lot of attention:
…The couple gathered the proper paperwork, some friends, and $40. Then they went to Buffalo City Hall to apply for a marriage license. The New York State Senate had voted down a gay marriage bill two months earlier. Although sympathetic, the city clerk informed the aspiring newlyweds that she was unable to go against state law and issue the document.
Lambert pressed about the law and asked, “So, if she was a man, it’s OK?” The clerk responded that this was true. So Lambert turned around, asked if there were any takers, and somewhat shockingly, obtained a marriage license with a random man from the crowd.
“We did not complete the process of getting married. That would have been silly,” said Lambert. “Just as silly as denying me a license to marry the person I truly loved — the one person I had been committed to for over a decade, the one I share five children and 12 grandchildren with, the one I own a home with, and the one I survived two runs of cancer and three heart attacks with.”
But following New York’s recent vote, Lambert and Rudd finally said “I Do” at midnight, on July 24, surrounded my friends and family.
Paul Dyster, the mayor of Niagara Falls (above, on their wedding night), married the couple of over ten years. After exchanging vows, the beaming brides exited down the aisle to Lady Gaga’s “The Edge of Glory.”
“They will always be among the first married same-sex couples in New York,” Hartinger points out, “which is now the largest state in America to allow gay couples the right to marry.”
But mostly, Lambert and Rudd are just basking in the joy of being just married, just as every other newlywed couple—gay or straight.
When Hartinger asked them if anything has changed since getting hitched, Rudd laughed, “Not really. Kitty still won’t do the dishes!”
Read more about Kittle Lamber and Cheryl Rudd, and their LGBT organization, OUTspoken for Equality, on Advocate.com now.
