Same-Sex Weddings 'A Long Time Coming' for NJ, Cherry Hill

Rose Papa and Renai Hall had taken all the steps they could.

It's been two decades since they got their domestic partnership papers and years since they became one of Cherry Hill's first couples united in a civil union.

Monday evening, they finally got the marriage they've wanted for 20 years.

It was a whirlwind—and, as they said, an exhausting—three days, from filing for a license in the wake of Friday's state Supreme Court decision to actually stepping up in front of the columns of town hall to speak their vows, amid more than a few tears.

“I just never thought we'd see it happen,” Papa said.

More than just a piece of paper, the women—one of four couples married Monday—said it's the rights that come with it, the ability to take care of each other without a stack of power of attorney forms, the things straight married couples take for granted, that really are the difference.

“That's really what we'd like people to understand,” Hall said.

Those newfound rights are something all the couples touched on in describing the importance of the day, and they were nearly all surprised to even have the chance to wed—or at least, so soon.

“I had hoped for it, but it was so important to me, I had to assume it would happen, because otherwise my heart would've been broken,” said Megan Nachod, who married her partner, Leigh. “I wasn't sure when it was going to happen at all. I certainly never expected it under Christie's watch.”

Leigh Nachod recalled marching on Washington, DC, in 2000, in the wake of Matthew Shepard's murder, when they were fighting just to have hate crime laws expanded to include violence against gay men and women.

“We went from 'Please include us in hate crime legislation,' something as simple as our safety, to standing here together,” she said. “That moment is so powerful to me.”

For Mayor Chuck Cahn, it was at least in part a fulfillment of a request on the day he took office two years ago—a gay couple came up to him and asked him to marry them, but he told them his hands were tied.

“I said, 'The day that those laws are passed, I'd be honored,'” he said.

While that couple wasn't part of Monday's ceremony, Cahn, who's married about 20 other couples in conventional marriages, said it was still a meaningful moment.

“I became overwhelmed—I became very emotional looking at them,” he said. “Because it meant so much to them, I realized how much it meant to me.”

Like the couples he married Monday, Cahn said

“It's been a long time coming for this state,” he said. “It's time for us to catch up, and I'm honored to be part of it.”

The first four couples won't be alone for long—the township received at least seven more same-sex marriage license applications through the end of the day Monday, officials said.