Posted on: Tuesday, July 22, 2003

Gay Hawai'i couple wed in Canada

Associated Press

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — A gay couple from Hawai'i got married here over the weekend, the first from the state to tie the knot in Canada since court decisions allowed same sex weddings.

Bill Schuyler, 55, and Ron Rinaldi, 63, of Kailua, Kona, were married Saturday afternoon in the back yard of the house of a friend, Shar Levine.

They were visiting in June when a court in Ontario ruled that gays could be married in that province, and Levine joked that they should return to get married once gay marriages were allowed in British Columbia.

On July 8, three hours after learning on the Internet about a British Columbia court decision that opened the door to same-sex marriages, they booked tickets to Vancouver and called Levine to tell her the party was on.

After 28 years together, Schuyler and Rinaldi, both interior designers, said making it legal was important.

The status of Canadian gay marriages in the United States is undetermined. A number of states bar recognition of same-sex marriages performed outside the United States.

In Hawai'i, the state Supreme Court in 1999 rejected the claim that gay couples are entitled to receive marriage licenses, while leaving untouched its 1993 ruling that gay couples are entitled to the same rights and benefits as opposite-sex couples.