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(Eureka Springs, AR) — One hundred seventy three days after four ordinary civilians armed with laptop computers hunkered down in a Eureka Springs living room to Google the subject, the first Domestic Partnership Registry in Arkansas became a reality today.
Even before the doors of Eureka City hall opened this morning, eleven couples–10 gay or lesbian and one straight–had lined up to be among the first Eurekans and the first Arkansans to have their relationships officially recognized by the city. Each couple paid the $35 fee, showed their ID, swore they were in a “relationship of mutual support, caring and commitment” and received a certificate signed by Mayor Dani Wilson and City Clerk MJ Sell.
What had begun on New Years Day 2007 had, six and a half months later, become law. Ordinance 2052 to be exact. It survived three votes by the city council and two ferocious attempts by an anti-gay minister to block it.
And the world did not come to an abrupt and catclysmic end, the eccentric resort town was not inundated with a flood of biblical proportions, marriage-as-we-know-it was not rendered null and void, and our seven-story concrete Jesus statue did not crumble (though some swear they saw it grin and wink).
Seismic sensors noted a slight temblor under the Victorian-era village, thought to be caused by all the fundamentalists shaking their heads and wringing their hands at the same time because democracy, not theocracy, had triumphed. Even here–especially here–on the buckle of the Bible Belt.
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