PHOTO: The word "married" was put in quotes by the headline writer for the story, "'Married' Gay Couple Fights Back, Government Denies Alien Visa for Australian 'Wife,'" concerning the 1975 marriage of Richard Adams and Tony Sullivan they did after legally obtaining a marriage license in Boulder, Colorado. The article is shown in the PBS Independent Lens Thomas G. Miller documentary "limited Partnership," 2014, Premiered June 15, 2015, watched on KOAC-TV Ch. 7 Jun. 28, 2016 11PM. Note that both Richard and Tony were living in Minnesota when the University of Minnesota law student Jack Baker obtained the first U.S. Supreme Court decision on gay marriage in 1972, however, any mention of the Baker v. Nelson case is missing from this otherwise expellant documentary. (See "Richard Adams (activist)," wikipedia.org, plus "Jack Baker (activist)," wikipedia.org, which includes a confusing history of Baker, and my previous post Gay marriage history on PBS by Marc Solomon still omitting Jack Baker and Michael McConnell (3/2/16))
My local PBS station recently aired the excellent documentary by Thomas G. Miller documentary "limited Partnership", and I was glad to see that the TV Guide listing information had been updated to say, "The story of Richard Adams and Tony Sullivan, one of the first same-sex couples to be legally wed," instead of incorrectly saying it was "the first" gay marriage, perhaps because I had filed a correction notice saying this was false due to the well documented 1972 U.S. Supreme Court decision Baker v. Nelson, which was based on the earlier gay marriage of Jack Baker and Michael McConnell. (See previous post Gay marriage history on PBS by Marc Solomon still omitting Jack Baker and Michael McConnell (3/2/16))
Given that both Richard Adams and Tony Sullivan were living in Minnesota when Jack Baker was leading his gay marriage activism efforts at the University of Minnesota, I find it a shame that the documentary did not ask these men if they were inspired by Baker's case. As somebody living there at the time, I know firsthand that the Baker case was well covered in both the local and national media -- it would be hard to miss -- and also well covered was the fact that Boulder, Colorado was issuing same-sex marriage licenses, which I assume is what motivated Richard Adams and Tony Sullivan to get a marriage license from the Boulder County Clerk interviewed in the documentary.
