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Among the first to do so in New Jersey, three same sex couples were married just after midnight Monday morning on the steps of the Paramount Theater on the Asbury Park boardwalk.

The couples were Asbury Councilwoman Amy Quinn and Heather Jensen and Steven Brunner and Daniel Baum, as well as Aberdeen couple Karen Nicholson-McFadden and Marcye Nicholson-McFadden.

Asbury resident Tom Pivinski, an ordained Episcopalian reverend at the Trinity Church in Asbury Park, performed the ceremonies. Pivinski has also applied for a license to marry his long-time partner Malcolm Navias. The two will exchange vows in a ceremony held at their Asbury home Monday evening.

Pivinski performed one duel ceremony for Quinn and Jensen standing alongside Baum and Brunner and another separate ceremony for the Nicholson-McFadden’s on the steps of the historic Paramount Theatre.

He opened the ceremony with a reference to the 1791 ratification of the Bill of Rights, which gave Americans some of their first freedoms, including the freedom to marry and to raise a family.

“It’s taken us 222 years to get to this amazing time in our history and we are so proud for Steven and Dan, and Heather and Amy because they are among the very first to be married in New Jersey — but it’s not politics that brings us here tonight, it’s love,” he said.

The couples then joined hands, looked into each other’s eyes and promised to love each other for better or worse, richer or poorer and in sickness and in health, until death.

“When challenges come, remember what is right between you. In this way, you can ride our every storm,” Pivinski said. “And when clouds hide the sun in your eyes, remember even if you lose sight of it for a moment — the sun is always there.

Between the duel and the second ceremonies, Garden State Equality vice chair and attorney Luanne Peterpaul explained the significance of being able to bear witness to the Nicholson-McFadden wedding.

The two were one of seven couples that served as plaintiffs in a 2002 same-sex marriage lawsuit, Lewis v. Harris, Peterpaul said. The case reached the state Supreme Court in 2006 and eventually caused the state legislature  to pass the civil union law later that same year, according to civil rights organization Lambda Legal’s website.  They were also plaintiffs in the Garden State Equality v. Dow case, Peterpaul said. The Dow case  was decided last month by Mercer County Superior Court Judge Mary C Jacobson, who ruled same-sex marriages must be allowed in the state since civil unions do not provide the same benefits as civil marriages. The New Jersey Supreme Court refused to delay the Oct. 21 effective date of Jacobson’s ruling, but will make a final ruling in the coming months. Until that time same sex couples may now legally marry in New Jersey.

“I’m very proud of these two, I’ve known them for many, many years,” Peterpaul said.

For a Sun photo album of the marriage ceremonies on the Asbury boardwalk, please click here.

An Essex County Judge signed a waiver on Sunday allowing some couples to marry early this morning — just short of the required 72 hour waiting period. Among those couples were Brunner, Baum and the Nicolson-McFaddens. Quinn and Jensen did not need the waiver as they were married in New York state earlier this year, and are eligible to remarry in New Jersey without the waiting period.

Pivinski and his partner, Malcolm Navias, have known the two Asbury couples for quite some time.

“We’ve all known each other and we’ve all lived our lives together and all of a sudden, it becomes almost momentous that we are able to celebrate it like this,” said Pivinski. “It’s more emotional than you ever anticipate what it’s going to be. It’s wonderful.”

After the three couples were married, Quinn thanked the municipal employees of the city who served in key roles to make the early morning marriage ceremonies a reality, including City Manager Terence Reidy, City Attorney Frederick Raffetto, and Deputy City Clerk Kiki Tomek.

“I have to thank  Kiki, who gave our applications for licenses when nobody else was, who opened her doors when the city was closed, who came in today—I don’t know how many times—to prep, and who took probably 45 phone calls from me in the last three hours. Without her this would absolutely not have happened,” Quinn said.

[Photo at top: From left to right, Daniel Baum and Steven Brunner, Asbury Park Deputy Clerk Kiki Tomek, Heather Jensen and Councilwoman Amy Quinn.]

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