Wedding Belles

Barbie Zahn and Ann Rifenberg were the first same-sex couple to apply for a marriage license at the Door County Courthouse on Monday, June 9, after a federal judge struck down a gay marriage ban on June 6. The couple has been together for 24 years and are planning a June 21 beach wedding. Submitted photo.

Ann Rifenberg’s daughter was crying when she called her mother from Ohio late in the afternoon of Friday, June 6.

“She was sobbing. I thought she was in ICU,” Rifenberg said.

But, no, her daughter was calling to talk about a federal judge’s decision to overturn Wisconsin’s gay marriage ban.

“She kept trying to say, ‘Mom, it’s good, it’s good.’ Finally she got the message through to me and we couldn’t believe it. We hadn’t heard the news,” Rifenberg said. “We were just absolutely amazed and delighted and thought about rushing down to Madison the next day, but if we’re going to do it, I wanted to do it in our home.”

So at 11 am Monday, June 9, Rifenberg and her partner of 24 years, Barb Zahn, showed up at the Door County Courthouse with a group of about a dozen well-wishers – including Zahn’s former husband, Tom Mickelson – to apply for a marriage license at the county clerk’s office.

“When we came in at 11 o’clock, we were the first people. I couldn’t believe it. I had come with a statement, expecting to be turned away,” Rifenberg said. “We weren’t expecting it in Door County. Since so many other counties are dragging their feet, we thought Door County would be one of them.”

More than half of the state’s 72 counties began issuing marriage licenses after the June 6 ruling, despite an attempt by Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen to obtain an emergency stay of the decision issued by U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb. Crabb rejected that request on June 9.

Zahn is a Door County native, but the pair raised their family in Madison before retiring to Door County 18 months ago. The couple had a commitment ceremony in 1992 but look forward to being truly legal under Judge Crabb’s ruling and comment that gay couples “are entitled to the same treatment as any heterosexual couple.”

“It just feels like community acclamation of our relationship, which is a wonderful thing. Finally,” she said. “It’s a wonderful time for Door County. I was terribly worried if they would stonewall this, it would really impact tourism here because, we’re not rich gay folks, but there are a ton of them that will keep looking out for quote-unquote gay-friendly places to visit and be tourists and to live in retirement and bring their money, so I’m glad that our community is being supportive of this.”

The next step for the couple is to pick up their marriage license on June 16, after the five-business day waiting period, and then hold the ceremony on the beach on June 21.

“All the kids are just over the moon,” Rifenberg said. “They’re all coming home for this. We live in a tiny cabin, so I said we’ll put up tents. Bring sleeping bags. We’re putting out an open invitation for anybody to come by for a pizza beach party, which, incidentally, includes a wedding. We have a wonderful minister going to do it, and we’ll tie the knot, the legal knot. We’re not going to register at Target. If we register anywhere, it would probably be Ace Hardware. But after 24 years, we’ve got enough stuff. Yay for Door County! Yay for us!”

Door County Clerk Jill Lau said as of Tuesday afternoon, two other same-sex couples had applied for a marriage license at her office.