Richard Adams, an Early Fighter for Gay Marriage, Dies

Richard Adams, pushed for gay marriage forty years before it reached the national attention is has today. Adams passed on December 17th after a brief illness at the age of 65 in his home with Tony Sullivan, his partner of 43 years.

In 1975, four years after they met, the couple heard about a country clerk in Boulder, Colo., Clela Rorex, who was granting marriage licenses to gay couples after learning that there was no Colorado law that directly forbade it.

The two were among the first couples to come to Colorado to marry before Clela Rorex was ordered to stop. After their marriage they sought residency for Sullivan, an Australian. The response was less than desirable, reading ” “You have failed to establish that a bona fide marital relationship can exist between two faggots.”

Adams fought the courts and filed a the first federal lawsuit seeking gay marriage recognition.

The couple is a subject of the upcoming documentary, “Limited Partnership,” and before Adam’s death they were actually working on a challenge to the federal Defense of Marriage Act.

Adams was an early fighter for gay marriage and a true pioneer. Read more about this story in the original article on Mercury News.