PHOTO: (click on photo to enlarge) A documentary film by Thomas G. Miller, "Limited Partnership" PBS TV "Independent Lens" (rerun Jun. 15, 2015, 11 PM to 12 midnight KOAC-TV Channel 7 Corvallis, Oregon Comcast Cable channel 710) featured the Boulder, Colorado marriage license obtained by Richard Adams (lived 1947-2012) and Tony Sullivan in 1975, who were erroneously credited as being the "first same-sex couple to be legally wed in the U.S" (left) by the TV Guide magazine June. 15, 2015, p. 57 print edition, but on the next page (right) of the June 8-21, 2015, p. 58P Pacific time zone print edition, the text description correctly says, "one of the first same-sex couples to marry," which is also the same text description used for Comcast cable TV boxes and other TV sets that use the TV Guide description service. In fact, the first legal gay marriage was in 1970 by Jack Baker and Michael McConnell -- see previous posts:
- National Public Radio interviews gay marriage visionaries Jack Baker and Michael McConnell (6/10/15)
- Baker marriage hits N.Y. Times front page only 4 decades late (5/17/15)
- University of Minnesota Press book by gay marriage pioneers Jack Baker and Michael McConnell (6/2/15)
Thomas G. Miller's documentary, "Limited Partnership," PBS TV "Independent Lens," completely ignores the earlier U.S. Supreme Court case on gay marriage brought by Jack Baker and it instead focuses on the later immigration case brought by Richard Adams and Tony Sullivan, who was an illegal Australian immigrant. A County clerk receipt for the filing of their marriage certificate is shown in the documentary with a date of Apr. 21, 1975. A newspaper story is also shown reporting that the Colorado Attorney General, on April 25, 1975, had declared their marriage illegal, even though Colorado law did not specify the gender of marriage partners, similar to what Baker had earlier found with Minnesota laws that he challenged in his U.S. Supreme Court case. Of course, just like Baker's marriage, Sullivan's legally performed marriage was never ordered annulled by any court of law. The film shows some interesting clips of the comedian Johnny Carson making a joke about gay marriages.
