Jack Fritscher and Mark Hemry
Domestic Partners, Civil Unions, and Marriages
Jack Fritscher and Mark Hemry met May 22, 1979, under the marquee of the Castro Theater the evening after the White Night Riot.
- 1993, January 11, San Francisco Domestic Partner (SF City Hall registration)
- 1996, March 25, San Francisco Domestic Partner ceremony, Mayor Willie Brown
- 2000, July 12, Civil Union in Brattleboro, Vermont.
- 2003, August 19, legally married in Vancouver, Canada.
- 2004, February 15, the Sunday of Valentine’s weekend, in San Francisco, they were married on the grand staircase of the City Hall Rotunda thanks to Mayor Gavin Newsom (eventually deemed invalid).
- 2008, June 20, married legally in the State of California.
1993, January 11, San Francisco Domestic Partner (SF City Hall registration)
1996, March 25, San Francisco Domestic Partner ceremony, Mayor Willie Brown
2000, July 12, Civil Union in Brattleboro, Vermont
Jack Fritscher and Mark Hemry marry in Civil Union in Vermont on July 12, 2000
See the reception photographs by Cheryl Henley and videography by Marilyn Huey
Honeymoon photos, Sonoma County Fair
The license was secured in Brattleboro, Vermont, on July 10, 2000, the fifth business day after the Vermont same-gender decision became law on July 1, 2000. The ceremony was performed by Justice of the Peace, Anne Rider, in Guilford, Vermont, with a reading from Rainer Maria Rilke’s “Letter to a Young Poet,” and ending with a double-ring exchange at which Anne Rider officially pronounced: “By virtue of the authority vested in me by the State of Vermont, I certify your Civil Union for now and forever.”
This union was timed for high-noon on July 12 which is the wedding anniversary of Jack Fritscher’s maternal grand-parents, and the wedding anniversary of his parents, as well as the birthday of his mother who was born during the noon hour on her parents’ wedding anniversary, extending the family celebration of union to the third generation. Jack Fritscher and Mark Hemry have been partners since 1979.
On January 11, 1993, the couple was among the first to become legal “Domestic Partners” by filing a declaration with the City and County of San Francisco. On March 25, 1996, the Fritscher-Hemry’s participated in the City of San Francisco’s historic same-sex marriage ceremony, televised, and officiated by Mayor Willie L. Brown, Jr., and Carole Migden, Assembly Woman. On January 13, 2000, they filed a state “Declaration of Domestic Partnership” under the Family Code with the Secretary of State of the State of California.
On Thursday, July 27, 2000, after a honeymoon in Boston and the Russian River, a surprise reception was hosted by Mark Hemry’s co-workers at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 9 San Francisco, celebrating the Civil Union as a new definition of “family” in a world of increasingly ligitimized diversity.
On the actual date of the Vermont Civil Union, the aptly titled Sweet Embraceable You: Coffee-House Stories, the new fiction collection written by Jack Fritscher, was published by Palm Drive Publishing and went into national distribution. The key story, “Mrs Dalloway Went That-A-Way” is a tale of gay marriage. The author dedicated the fiction collection to “My Sweet Embraceable Mark Hemry.”
2003, August 19, legally married in Vancouver, Canada
2004, February 15, the Sunday of Valentine’s weekend, in San Francisco, they were married on the grand staircase of the City Hall Rotunda thanks to Mayor Gavin Newsom (eventually deemed invalid)
2008, June 20, married legally in the State of California
