By Rick Karlin

At one minute after midnight, under a full moon, nearly 100 couples got married in the County Courthouse in Delray Beach by Sharon R. Bock, Clerk and Comptroller of Palm Beach County. Earlier in the week Bock, in a video presentation on her office’s web site announced that the courthouse would stay open late to take advantage of the end of the stay on performing same sex marriages in Florida. She also announced that she would perform a mass ceremony for any couples who wished to participate.

In the video Bock said, “On January 1, 2015, Judge Hinkle issued an order clarifying that Florida Clerks may issue same-sex marriage licenses. As clerk and comptroller for Palm Beach County my office is celebrating this historic act of equality in Florida. On Monday, January 5, our south county office located at Delray Beach will open at 10:30 p.m. to begin processing applications to marry. These applications will become effective at twelve midnight. At 12:01 a.m. on Tuesday. January 6, I will personally marry, in a historic group ceremony, those couples whose applications have been executed.”

Although they were not the first marriages in the state (Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Sarah Zabel jumped the deadline and married two couples, Cathy Pareto and Karla Arguello and Todd and Jeff Delmay earlier in the day), those who gathered at the Palm Beach County Courthouse in Delray were certainly among the most joyful.

Bock asked employees to volunteer to work the special late night shift and had no trouble finding volunteers. Dozens of employees, from security guards, to clerks and administrators greeted the crowds waiting in lines to the end of the block to enter the courthouse. Once inside couples filled out the necessary paperwork (usually Florida residents must wait three days to get married, that requirement was waived for these marriages) and waited with family and friends until the stroke of midnight for the ceremony to begin. The ceremony ended up being delayed a bit, as there were many more couples than the courthouse staff had anticipated. As children yawned and slept in their parents’ arms, the staff of the courthouse began lining the 82 couples up to begin the ceremony.

Finally the couples, families and friends, along with nearly as many news media reps gathered at the base of the grand staircase in the courthouse rotunda. As Bock stood at a podium before the gathered couples, a pair of singers performed “Defying Gravity” and “The Prayer.” Following the songs, Bock recited a portion of Henry David Thoreau’s poem, “Friendship”,

Two sturdy oaks I mean, which side by side,

Withstand the winter’s storm,

And spite of wind and tide,

Grow up the meadow’s pride,

For both are strong

Above they barely touch, but undermined

Down to their deepest source,

Admiring you shall find

Their roots are intertwined

Insep’rably.

After the poem Bock led the couples in their vows and ended by saying, “By the authority vested in me as the clerk and comptroller and under the laws of the great State of Florida, along with the eyes and the hearts of your family and friends I pronounce you legally married.”

Cheers followed as the couples embraced, each other, family, friends and total strangers. The addition of Florida’s 19.9 million people means that 70% of Americans now live in states where same sex marriage is legal.

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