Michael McConnell and Jack Baker


Michael McConnell and Jack Baker are the first legally married same-sex couple in the history of the United States. McConnell, a librarian, and Baker, law student, were married in the U.S. state of Minnesota on 3 September 1971.
Both were activists in Minnesota from 1969 to 1980. They were invited often to appear publicly in the U.S. and Canada at college events, schools, businesses, churches, etc.
Historians argued, correctly, that the interpretation of "Marriages prohibited" by the Minnesota Supreme Court in Baker v. Nelson did not apply to McConnell and Baker because they obtained a license and were married six weeks before that Court's OPINION became final.

FREE activists

Birth of America's first gay marriage

Robert Halfhill, a graduate student who attended their lecture, left determined to form an independent group called "FREE" on the Minneapolis campus of the University of Minnesota. Attendees elected Jack Baker, a law student, to serve as president.
Interest in FREE expanded quickly. When a faculty committee qualified the group for all privileges enjoyed by student organizations, it became "the first student gay organization to gain recognition in the upper mid-west." Its "leaders it to be the first such organization on a Big Ten campus", the second such organization in the United States, following the Student Homophile League recognized by Columbia University in 1967.
Moving openly and aggressively, FREE slowly transformed Minneapolis into a "mecca for gays", with members soon endorsing McConnell's demand for marriage equality.
One member asked five major companies with local offices to explain their attitudes toward gay men and women. Three responded quickly, insisting that they did not discriminate against homosexuals in their hiring policies. Only Honeywell objected. Later, when faced with a denial of access to students, Honeywell "quietly its hiring policy".

Student Body President

In 1971, Baker campaigned to become president of the Minnesota Student Association at the U of M. He urged students "to search out a new self-respect", insisting that there was no need to wait for a new law to have a student serve with the regents. "The Regents already have the power to appoint students to all committees of the Board or Regents."
With a focus on self-pride, Baker was elected then re-elected. As student body president, he continued to question why the Board of Regents ignored students when making its decisions.
Eventually, one non-voting student was invited to sit with the regents at each committee meeting. After graduation, the Governor signed into law a bill reserving one seat on the Board of Regents for an enrolled student.

The birth of PRIDE

Also in 1971, members of FREE from Gay House promoted self-pride with picnics in Loring Park, near Downtown Minneapolis. Thom Higgins crafted "Gay Pride" as both the banner and chant to encourage allies and friends to oppose all attempts by the Catholic archbishop for Minneapolis and Saint Paul to demean either gay or pride as a "sin".
Such "PRIDE" celebrations became the tradition that thrives today in cities throughout the United States. FREE continued working with faculty to protect gay students from discrimination.

Lawsuit to obtain a marriage licence

The Clerk of District Court, Gerald Nelson, denied their request. Refusal by lower courts to order Nelson to issue a license was later affirmed by the Minnesota Supreme Court in Baker v. Nelson. However, before that decision became final, McConnell applied again, in a different county, and received a marriage license.
The case received extensive media attention, including appearances on the Phil Donahue Show; Kennedy & Co. ; and David Susskind Show, where Baker insisted, "We're gonna win eventually, not this time but maybe the next time around."
Unfortunately, the reaction from gay and civil liberty advocates was indifferent at best. Gay marriage was "rejected by early gay activists who were mostly interested in sexual freedom and gay liberation" while leadership inside the American Civil Liberties Union showed "little or no enthusiasm".
Back at the U of M, Allan Spear – professor of history – mocked McConnell and Baker as the "lunatic fringe".

Gay Marriage as a civil right

When invited to address members of the Ramsey County Bar Association, Baker insisted that same-sex unions are "not only authorized by the U.S. Constitution" but are mandatory. "I am convinced that same-sex marriages will be legalized in the United States."
After Baker spoke to a forum of more than 2,000 at the University of Winnipeg, Richard North began his "fight to be married" to Chris Vogel. Persistence led to marriage equality in Canada during 2004.
NAACP's president, Benjamin Todd Jealous, insisted that as demands for same-sex marriage continued to grow worldwide, it became "the civil rights issue of our times".
Speaking to the Associated Press, Baker explained that the "outcome was never in doubt because the conclusion was intuitively obvious to a first-year law student."

Courts debate their marriage

McConnell’s marriage to Baker – like any marriage – depended on the interpretation of Minnesota’s marriage law. Early results were not favorable, with state and federal courts rejecting the marriage.
Denial of the original request in Minneapolis resulted in a direct appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court by the Minnesota Civil Liberties Union.
A quick dismissal was approved unanimously after the clerk for Justice Harry Blackmun crafted a one-sentence rejection, "I just think the court was ready at the time to take on the issue."
Lower courts were forced to supervise a national debate before the high court decided that its decision to dismiss all demands for marriage equality must be overruled.
Meanwhile, the Internal Revenue Service rejected their joint tax return for 1973. McConnell responded by listing Baker as an adopted "child" on his tax returns from 1974 through 2004 for which he claimed a deduction as head of household. That benefit ended when Congress limited the deduction for an adopted child under the age of 19.
Also, the Veterans Administration rejected a claim for benefits in 1976 because "Minnesota law prohibits same sex marriages..."

Adoption, name change, and a lasting marriage

In 1971, McConnell adopted Baker whose legal name changed to Pat Lyn McConnell. With a gender-neutral husband, McConnell applied and received a marriage license in Blue Earth County while the couple was visiting friends in Mankato. Rev. Roger Lynn, a United Methodist minister, validated the marriage contract.
Afterward, the Hennepin County Attorney convened a grand jury, which "studied the legality of the marriage but found the question not worth pursuing."
The Family Law Reporter argued that the Minnesota high court's 1972 OPINION on the couple’s first attempt at marriage in Minneapolis – Baker v. Nelson – did not invalidate McConnell and Baker's Blue Earth County marriage license because the two were married "a full six weeks" before that decision was filed.
Indeed, records at The National Archives verify that "McConnell and Baker's marriage license was never revoked. They are still married and have been for the last forty two years."
Legal professionals, academics and historians agree:
In 1970, the University Librarian invited Michael McConnell to head the Cataloging Division on the university's St. Paul campus. The Board of Regents refused to approve the offer after McConnell applied for a marriage license and regent Daniel Gainey insisted that "homosexuality is about the worst thing there is."
McConnell sued and prevailed in federal District Court. The Board appealed to the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, which concluded that the university did not restrict free speech. Instead, it insisted, McConnell wanted "to pursue an activist role in implementing his controversial ideas concerning the social status to be accorded homosexuals and thereby to foist tacit approval of the socially repugnant concept upon his employer."
U of M students, more than 80%, objected to the regents' action.
Hennepin County Library, then a diverse and growing system of 26 facilities, hired McConnell. The county Board of Commissioners applauded his 37 years of service when he retired as a Coordinating Librarian.
In 2012, University of Minnesota president Eric Kaler offered McConnell an apology for the "reprehensible" treatment he endured from the Board of Regents in 1970. McConnell accepted his assurance that "such practices would not be consistent with the practices enforced today at the university."

Career in law and politics

After graduating from the University of Minnesota Law School, Baker's request to take the bar examination raised questions of fraud surrounding his 1971 marriage license. The Minnesota Civil Liberties Union convinced the State Board of Law Examiners that he was entitled to take the exam.
Baker campaigned for Associate Justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court, each time arguing that his opponent ignored ethics by heading the Minnesota News Council. In the Plebiscite mailed to more than 14,900 attorneys in Minnesota, Baker challenged the bar to end special relationships between Justices of Minnesota's Supreme Court and MNC. Nevertheless, collusion continued.
Even after Minnesota's Supreme Court exited its offices at "230 State Capitol", benefits were bestowed on judges who mediated private disputes.

Vindication in later years

Though the 1972 case was dismissed "for want of a substantial federal question", the couple obtained a legal marriage license before their attorneys filed an appeal and remained together as a married couple.
In 2003, Baker and McConnell amended their individual tax returns for the year 2000, filing jointly as a couple, offering proof of a valid marriage license from Blue Earth County. The IRS challenged the validity of the marriage and argued that, even if the license were valid, the Defense of Marriage Act prohibits the IRS from recognizing it. When McConnell brought suit, the U.S. District Court for Minnesota upheld the IRS ruling and the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed, saying that McConnell could not re-litigate the question decided in Baker v. Nelson.
In 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court decided "the issue Jack Baker and Mike McConnell tried to bring before it in 1972: Do same-sex couples have a constitutional right to get married?" Minnesota's Attorney General argued, as a friend of the court: "The procreation rationale does not support the prohibition of same-sex marriage". In their decision on Obergefell v. Hodges, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Baker v. Nelson.

Interview

Short documentary