Craig Dean, former DC resident, wants back in spotlight & District’s first gay marriage certificate
”They owe me a marriage license…. He was really holding on in the hopes that we would win…. Whether it became legal or not, he was my husband…. If anything it was a marriage in the way we lived our lives…. The first name on the list should be the one who is waiting 20 years.”
Craig Dean, a former resident of Washington, DC, who speaks of his late ex-lover, Patrick Gill. About two decades ago, the pair made headlines and waves within gay political circles for trying to be the first gay couple to get married in Washington, DC. At the time, gay sex was still technically illegal in the District, and it was thought that their effort was going to do more harm than good. The AP story mentions their relationship, and that Gill had AIDS, and that Gill died a couple of years after the District court’s final decision to block their marriage. But others recall a different ending than the one portrayed in this article — that Dean and Gill had already split up, and that Gill had passed away of a drug overdose. While they should have been granted a marriage license then, some others in the community felt then that they were more interested in making headlines and appearing on top TV talk shows. According to the the AP story, Dean now lives in South Carolina with his newly engaged partner, John Blevins. (LA Times)
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