# Jack Baker and Michael McConnell

Richard John Baker and James Michael McConnell are the first same-sex couple in modern recorded history known to obtain a marriage license, have their marriage solemnized, which occurred on September 3, 1971, and have it legally recognized by any form of government.
The couple met in 1966. On March 10, 1967 – Baker's 25th birthday – McConnell agreed to be "his lover" but only if it meant "a commitment . . . for the long haul," living openly as a married couple. That commitment continued long after "52 Years Since Same-sex Marriage Milestone".
On October 15, 1971, the Minnesota Supreme Court in Baker v. Nelson affirmed a court clerk's refusal on May 22, 1970 to issue them a marriage license in Hennepin County for the sole reason that it would undermine "the entire legal concept of our family structure in all areas of law" (despite this not being identified in Minnesota law as a reason for prohibiting such a marriage). Their appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court in October 1971 was accepted but later dismissed on October 10, 1972. Though the "precise issue" was not disclosed, their marriage contract, lawfully obtained but never invalidated, affected the decision.

## Early years

James Michael McConnell was born in Norman, Oklahoma on May 19, 1942. He was raised in a loving Baptist family. After graduating from Norman High School, he attended the University of Oklahoma (OU), ending with a Master of Library Science degree in June 1968.
Baker was born in Chicago on March 10, 1942. While in kindergarten, his teacher described him as "very bright" and "anxious to learn". After his parents died, he and three siblings were delivered by the State of Illinois, Department of Public Welfare, Child Welfare Services to Maryville Academy in Des Plaines, Illinois, and accepted as boarders to receive Catholic schooling. He remained in its care and custody for almost 11 years, completing grades 2-12.
While on active duty (four years) in the U.S. Air Force, Baker was accepted in the Airmen Education Commissioning Program and stationed at OU, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Engineering. He returned to Norman as a civilian, met McConnell, and invited him to hang out. With reluctance, his friend agreed to enter into a serious relationship. Baker also later received a Master's degree in May 1968.

### FREE activism

In 1969, weeks before the Stonewall riots in New York City, Koreen Phelps recruited local friends to join her outreach program sponsored by Minnesota Free University. Robert Halfhill, a graduate student who attended her lecture, wanted more than "just a social organization". He left, determined to organize a team of gay activists on the Minneapolis campus of the University of Minnesota.
Jack Baker, then a law student and "benevolent dictator", was elected to serve as president. Moving aggressively and openly, FREE played a significant role in making Minneapolis a prominent center for the LGBTQ+ community with members soon endorsing McConnell's dream of same-sex marriage and assisting activists "to gain visibility and legitimacy" at the University of Kansas, Lawrence.
When a faculty committee qualified the members to receive all privileges enjoyed by student groups, it became "the first student gay organization to gain recognition in the upper mid-west." Its "leaders [believed] it to be the first such organization on a Big Ten campus", and the second such organization in the United States, following the Student Homophile League recognized by Columbia University in 1967.
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 gay people in their hiring policies. Honeywell objected to hiring "a known homosexual." Later in the decade, when faced with a denial of access to students, Honeywell reversed its hiring policy.
In 1971, Baker campaigned to become president of the Minnesota Student Association at the University of Minnesota. Once elected, he hired Gail Karwoski as his communications director and, one year later, won re-election. The regents consented to his campaign promise and invited one student to sit with each committee as a non-voting member. That practice proved to be popular and became policy.

### The birth of PRIDE

In 1971, Members of FREE from Gay House invited friends to meet at picnics in Loring Park. These events, which encouraged queer pride, began in mid-June as a prelude to local celebrations of Independence Day. Thom Higgins, Prime Archon of the Church of the Chosen People, crafted Gay Pride for the banner that would lead the crowd as it encouraged allies, supporters and bystanders to punish Leo Christopher Byrne, the Catholic archbishop of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, for his public opposition to homosexuality. .
At the time, Baker was the chair of the Target City Coalition, parent corporation for The Gay Pride Committee, which sponsored the Festival of Pride each June. These celebrations were some of the earliest queer pride events in the United States.
In 1973, FREE continued working with University of Minnesota faculty to protect gay students from discrimination. Central Administration approved the final draft of a new policy in 1972 and the Campus Committee on Placement Services began accepting complaints of unequal treatment by employers recruiting on campus. A member of FREE received class credit for documenting his youth and why he supported America's first gay marriage.

## Same-sex marriage activism

The marriage equality movement that emerged from the University of Minnesota attracted extensive media attention, including appearances on the Phil Donahue Show; and the David Susskind Show. The movement was widely criticized, while admiration among peers spread locally.

### Lawsuit to obtain a marriage license

McConnell and Baker applied for a marriage license. After the Clerk of District Court refused their request, they filed a "motion for the issuance of a writ of mandamus to require . . . the Clerk . . . to issue a marriage license . . ." Denial in the lower court was affirmed by the Minnesota Supreme Court. However, before the final opinion was published, McConnell re-applied – in a different county – and received a marriage license.

### Same-sex marriage as a civil right

Speaking to members of the Ramsey County Bar Association, Baker argued that same-sex unions are "not only authorized by the U.S. Constitution" but are mandatory. Later, Baker spoke at the University of Winnipeg, which activist Richard North credited as the start of a "fight [by same-sex couples in Canada] to be married" legally.
In 2012, after Ben Jealous, then president of the NAACP, called same-sex marriage the "civil rights issue of our times", Baker stated that "the conclusion was intuitively obvious to a first-year law student."

### Courts debate their marriage

McConnell's marriage to Baker depended on how Minnesota interpreted its laws. Early results were not favorable. An appeal sponsored by the Minnesota Civil Liberties Union was accepted by the U.S. Supreme Court, which dismissed it with a one-sentence order on October 10, 1972: "The appeal is dismissed for want of a substantial federal question."
Their joint tax return for 1973 was rejected by the Internal Revenue Service. Likewise, the Veterans Administration rejected McConnell's request for spousal benefits. Undaunted, McConnell listed Baker as an adopted "child" on his tax returns for which he received a deduction as head of household from 1974 through 2004. That benefit ended when Congress limited the deduction to an individual under the age of 19.

### Adoption and later legal review

After McConnell adopted Baker, he re-applied in Blue Earth County and received a marriage license, which "was never revoked". Rev. Roger Lynn, a minister from the Hennepin Avenue United Methodist Church, validated the marriage contract at a private home in Minneapolis.
The Hennepin County Attorney convened a grand jury to investigate if Rev. Lynn had committed a crime. He studied the legality of the marriage but found the question not worth pursuing.
The Family Law Reporter argued in 1974 that Baker v. Nelson could not annul a marriage contract that was validated "a full six weeks" before the decision was filed. Professor Thomas Kraemer argued that FREE had hosted "the first same-sex couple in history to be legally married".
On September 18, 2018, a district court judge in Blue Earth County declared "The [1971] marriage . . . to be in all respects valid" and ordered the Clerk of Court to record it. Their marriage remained unrecognized by the Social Security Administration until validated by a local court.

### Synopsis

When Baker enrolled as a law student in late 1969, he began pursuing his promise to obtain a legal right to marry. He and McConnell, a librarian, became gay rights activists in Minnesota from 1969 to 1980. After being refused in their first attempt to obtain a marriage license in Hennepin County in early 1970, Baker was legally adopted by McConnell in early August 1971 and changed his legal name to Pat Lyn McConnell (although he continued to use "Jack Baker" as his political persona). They applied for a marriage license in Blue Earth County on August 9, 1971, which was issued on August 16, 1971. After the wedding ceremony was held on September 3, 1971, they were often invited to appear and speak at colleges, schools, businesses and churches in the U.S. and Canada. Their marriage was not recorded or recognized as legal by the local government, various courts, the IRS or the Veterans Administration until a state district court in Blue Earth County affirmed its legality on September 18, 2018.
Baker and McConnell (and others) have asserted that neither the state supreme court decision nor the U.S. Supreme Court dismissal directly affected the validity of their marriage, because although they were refused a marriage license in Hennepin County, they had successfully obtained one from Blue Earth County and were married using that license before the Minnesota Supreme Court affirmed the Hennepin County clerk's refusal to issue them a license. Because the Minnesota Supreme Court had not directly addressed the validity of their marriage in Blue Earth County, and their marriage had never officially been declared nullified, a district court ultimately agreed with that view in 2018 – despite the fact that the marriage was not previously recorded or recognized by the state.

## Later life

The couple obtained a valid marriage license before the rejection in Hennepin County was appealed to and accepted by the U.S. Supreme Court. Though that case ended in 1972, "for want of a substantial federal question", other challenges followed as they pursued affirmation of their union while living openly as a married couple.
In 1972, Baker led the Gay Rights Caucus at the state convention of the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party. The caucus persuaded delegates to endorse "legislation defining marriage as a civil contract between any two adults". That vote became the "first known case" of support by a major United States political party for same-sex marriage.
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 prohibited 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 a question decided previously.
In 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court answered the question they had dismissed in 1972: "Do same-sex couples have a constitutional right to get married?" The court concluded in Obergefell v. Hodges that same-sex couples had a right to marry, overturning Baker v. Nelson, which had been accepted as precedent. As a "friend of the court", the Attorney General of Minnesota agreed that the Minnesota Supreme Court's prior "procreation rationale" did not support its prohibition of same-sex marriage.

### Employment discrimination at the University of Minnesota

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 asserted 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 agreed with the university that it had not restricted free speech. Instead, it ruled that McConnell was to blame for wanting to implement his "controversial ideas" and foist tacit approval of his "socially repugnant concept" on his employer. More than 80% of University of Minnesota students disagreed with the regents' behavior.
Hennepin County Library hired McConnell. After 37 years of service, McConnell retired as a Coordinating Librarian.
In 2012, University of Minnesota president Eric Kaler offered McConnell a personal apology for the "reprehensible" treatment endured from the board of regents in 1970. McConnell accepted his assurances and agreed to join the Heritage Society of the President's Club.

## Interviews

* Crann, Tom (July 16, 2015). "For Mpls. couple, gay marriage ruling is a victory 43 years in the making". MPR News. Minnesota Public Radio.
* Raphael, T. J. (June 25, 2015). "'You are as good as anybody else.' Same-sex couple who married in 1970 on Supreme Court move". The Takeaway. Public Radio International.

## Short documentary

* Kessler, Pat (July 29, 2013). "A Rare Glimpse At Minn.'s 1st Gay Wedding In 1971". WCCO-TV, Minneapolis.
* "Halftime". Minnesota United FC. June 23, 2021.