Lesbian Couple Wed at Gay Pride Festival at UCI

IRVINE —  Standing under a tent and surrounded by floral bouquets Saturday, the couple promised to provide each other with shelter, strength and everlasting companionship.

“You are my love, you are my life, and now, you are my wife,” 30-year-old Dee Lilly said before the gold wedding bands were exchanged.

Her new wife, 28-year-old Becky Masaya, also spoke of their 3 1/2-year relationship that was now being formalized through the ceremony--which is not legally binding--performed by a Laguna Beach minister during Orange County’s Lesbian and Gay Pride Festival at UCI’s Aldrich Park.

“Since you came into my life, I finally know what love is,” Masaya said. “Love is what you and I are together. You are my other half--the half that has made me whole.”

Despite the festival atmosphere, the ceremony was solemn and had all the pomp of a traditional wedding.

Lilly wore a tuxedo with a pink cummerbund and bow tie, and Masaya--escorted down aisle by her stepfather--wore her grandmother’s wedding gown.

“I always wanted to see her marry in that gown,” the smiling grandmother, Pearl Jenkins, said afterward.

Their wedding, the first in the five-year history of this event, and its acceptance by family members caused the minister, Rosalind Russell of Star Chapel in Laguna Beach to observe: “You are changing our very world.”

Gays and lesbians say that changing the world is a purpose of the celebration.

Festival-goer David Lee, 43, of Laguna Niguel said some gays and lesbians wish the festival would be held in a more open space rather than within the confines of the UCI campus to show the usually conservative Orange County community that they do fit into society.

“They are afraid of what they don’t know,” Lee said of non-gays.

Many booths at the festival promoted political and cultural awareness. “Hate is not a family value,” was printed on buttons sold by the Log Cabin Federation, a Republican gay and lesbian group.

Gay activists also circulated petitions opposing President Clinton’s compromise policy on gays in the military--which prevents military commanders from investigating gays and lesbians as long as they keep their sexual orientation secret and don’t engage in homosexual conduct.

Navy Chief Petty Officer Keith Meinhold, an openly gay sailor who won a federal district court ruling after the Navy attempted to remove him from duty, will be one of the grand marshals for the 1993 Pride Parade, scheduled to start today at noon.

Lilly and Masaya of Costa Mesa had not intended to have such a public wedding, at first planning to hold the ceremony last summer.

But in March, 1992, Lilly was struck by a car traveling 70 m.p.h as she stood on the Costa Mesa Freeway providing first aid to an accident victim. It was feared that Lilly would not survive the accident.

The mishap also caused a financial hardship since Lilly was forced to give up her job as a truck driver, and plans for a formal wedding ceremony were postponed.

But when they heard that the gay community wanted to sponsor a wedding at the festival, they submitted their names.

“We are very proud to be who we are as a gay couple,” Lilly said. “So I can’t see it being done anywhere else except here.”

During a news conference after the ceremony, Masaya said it was an important step for them even though the marriage is not legally binding.

“It is (binding) in the eyes of the church and God,” Masaya said. “We are not marrying for all of you people out there, we are marrying for us and our hearts, and to us that’s the most important thing.”