New York City's First Gay Marriage

NEW YORK CITY - I dupe, I dupe!
While political arguments rage, New York City has certified its first gay marriage -- of two men who fooled the City Clerk's Office into letting them tie the knot.
Hakim Nelson and Jason Stenson married on May 26 with nary a raised eyebrow among the oblivious city bureaucrats who not only OK'd the marriage license, but conducted the ceremony, despite gay marriage being illegal in the state.
The plucky couple filled out their marriage application online at the Apple Store on 14th Street in May. A few days later, they went to the City Clerk's Office on Worth Street to complete the form and get their marriage license.
Nelson -- who goes by the name "Kimah" and hopes to one day have surgery to become a "full female" -- wore an orange dress and white leggings, his straight, brown hair falling to his shoulders.
The gullible clerk didn't seem to notice that both Nelson, 18, and Stenson, 21, have male first names.
They both had to present identification to obtain the license. Stenson used his state ID card, and Nelson gave a state Benefit Card, which he uses to collect food stamps.
By a fluke, Nelson's ID card has an "F" for female on it, because the official who issued it in April assumed from his appearance that he was a woman.
But Nelson couldn't believe the license clerk didn't ask for better identification.
"I was scared. I thought they would ask for more paperwork from me because I have a male name," Nelson said.
The clerk didn't. Instead she asked questions about the couple's jobs and addresses -- which they listed as Sylvia's Place, a city shelter for gay, lesbian and transgender youth -- but nothing about their gender.
Ten days after obtaining their license, the wedding crashers returned to the office for the ceremony. They were clutching their license and a pair of $10 silver wedding rings they had bought in the West Village. Nelson was in the same orange dress.
They showed another clerk at the marriage bureau their license, and he gave them a number and told them to wait.
Then a third city official, Blanca Martinez, took their IDs and the license. She printed out the marriage certificate and performed the quick ceremony, pausing to ask Nelson whether she was pronouncing "Hakim" properly. A friend served as a witness.
As they walked out of the building hand in hand, Jason said to his new spouse, "I think we just made history."
A source with the clerk's office said the employees were simply snookered.
"Is our system 100 percent foolproof? What system is? We do the best job we can," he said.
"If someone is trying to willfully sneak through, we try to stop it. But you have instances of females [who] have male names and vice versa.
"You've heard of a boy named Sue, right?"
The bureau is currently deciding what steps to take regarding the license or any others that may have been issued improperly, adding that Stenson's and Nelson's is not valid.
When they told another male couple about duping the city, that pair made a bee-line for the clerk's office and were also wed, Nelson said.
After The Post's inquiries, the city's marriage bureau stopped two more people with male names from marrying Friday, requesting birth certificates.
Stenson, who has two children by his former domestic partner, does not consider himself gay. He sees his new spouse as a woman.
Experts say the marriage is not legal.
"Gay marriage is not lawful here in New York, so they're technically not married," said matrimonial attorney Raoul Felder.
Evan Wolfson, head of Freedom to Marry, a local advocacy group devoted to legalizing gay marriage, saw the Stenson/Nelson example as "one more illustration of why the New York Senate needs to move quickly to pass the marriage bill and end this discrimination in New York."
The "newlyweds," meanwhile, have already run into trouble. They took their new license to the Adult Family Intake Center in Manhattan hoping to qualify for couples' housing. But Nelson's name immediately drew suspicion.
"Are you a man or a woman?" the intake officer demanded.
"I'm a transsexual," he lied.
For now, the pair is living as a married couple in a Brooklyn shelter.
"People in Albany can say, 'Look, it's already happened, so let's just make it legal,' " Stenson said. "We're all human beings. What makes me and my wife different?"
from The New York Post